Renegade gems
by Beem0b0t
Summary: Steven and the Crystal Gems find themselves in an interesting situation when Steven accidentally revives and heals a corrupted gem. They find themselves in an even more interesting situation when a group of Renegades from Homeworld escape to Earth. What repercussions will they all face when Homeworld finds out about the loose ends left on Earth?
1. Renegade

**SO! I am sort of back? I guess...? Brand new venue. Gonna try to get my other fanfics worked on as well, but Steven Universe showed up in my time of depression and stress and helped me out so I'm starting one of these up for SU. This one's gonna be pretty intense, assuming i do it right. Can't say I'm not nervous. I've been doing a lot of writing, but i've been out of the game for a while now. A year i think? Well, enjoy!**

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"And you're sure of this? It's time for us to leave then, huh?" Almandine stared out of the clear red window in front of her, as if something ominous loomed in the distance. She looked apprehensive, but then, when didn't she? As the leader of her own little squad of Gems she had to take into consideration every single detail, from the minute to the extreme. Anything could be a detriment for those she held so closely. She may have been cruel or even cold at times, but her passion and love for her team was impossible to mistake. Almandine may have answered to the Diamonds: Yellow, Blue, and Clear Diamond, but she would do anything to keep her own gems out of danger. They were like family to her. Her eyes traced the sky from under her rusty red hood, following the lining of each cloud until her gaze fell upon the moon, burning blood red through the window. Her gaze then shifted to the other structures in the grandiose city. Then she looked upon the many gems with which she found herself spending most every day with, each living under the subtle control of the Diamonds that she herself was victim to until her friend had brought it to her attention. She was no one's puppet, she had no master save herself.

"I guess you're right, Beryl. It is about time we get out of here. But where? Where could we possibly go? We are not safe here. It is clear with each passing day, as our missions grow harder and harder, they are trying to get rid of us. How much longer before we lose another gem? How many more of us must we sacrifice for their monopoly of the universe? I'm as done with it as you are, now. Thank you for opening my eyes. We need only a place we can go, seek refuge, far from this horrid place. Somewhere they wouldn't expect. Somewhere safe. Somewhere unnoticeable. Have you any ideas, my old friend?" Almandine turned her solemn face to the rather heavy set gem behind her. Beryl was a purple skinned gem with hair covering her eyes in rather cute and curled bangs. She was also rather thick of build, but she was also short: only 4 foot 3 inches to Almandine's near 8 feet of height. She was taken aback, rarely ever did Almandine speak, and even less so much so. She felt both honored and elated. At first she had no ideas, holding her stare with her mouth open in a dumbstruck void of expression. Almandine waited patiently, as this was her want to do in times like these, as Beryl processed this information. Neither of them were stupid by any means, and that was the problem. Because of their own experience they pictured a number of planets that they could run off to that should nearly be safe and still lead the Diamonds to them.

"Tourmaline. Spinel." Beryl said, suddenly. Almandine's face perked up as she realized she was staring off into the blank space just behind Beryl's head, another bad habit she picked up from dealing with Beryl's many pauses. "Hm!? What about them?" Beryl was already turning around, preparing to leave, thinking she had explained enough. She so loathed having to talk, preferring the role of a listener. "They talk of this place, this planet I've never heard of or even read about. I find no documents on it anywhere. Talk to them about it. They should know." Almandine simply nodded her thanks, picking up Beryl's reticence to continue their conversation. She had come to learn each and every mannerism and habit of her gems. A simple nuance of her job that she had come to love. She worked so closely with them that she had picked up on their particular quirks. She knew how to motivate them and how to lead them perfectly, how to instill fear and awe and hope and joy and provide what they needed when they needed it. Almandine glared out of her window once more, glaring at a particularly tall, spired building that melted her smile into a grimace. "How many more of us would you let die, hmm?"  
The clash of steel on steel filled the room, echoing off of the spacious walls and into the filling the air with the music of combat. The opponents were two brightly haired gems, both fairly tall, the first being Kunzite, the second being Spinel. "You're in for it now, Kunzite! You keep leaving yourself open, well count on me punishing you this time! No more mercy from me!" Spinel launched himself, yes himself, at his thin, sword wielding opponent with vicious fury. Just before he thrust his star tipped spear at Kunzite Almandine called out, "Spinel. Come over here." Spinel's hand faltered as his attention divided, "Huh!?" Kunzite's worried grimace turned into a gleeful smirk as she side stepped his slow attack, spun around the shaft, unarmed him with the hook of her rapier, and struck him into the ground. "Agh! Wha- URK!" He began, unable to finish his thought as Kunzite's curved blade found his throat. "I win again, Spinel. Always take advantage of openings, no matter what, right?" Spinel glared up at her and growled, "You're fast and think on your toes. That's as much as you got going for you." Then e sighed and fell back to the floor, refusing to support himself any longer. "Oh, what am i saying. I'm just making an ass out of myself. I was in this same position so many years ago on Earth…" He closed his eyes and brought his hands to his face, muffling his words, "If only I got the chance to have a rematch. I guarantee that she would find the results to be quite different. I've been practicing all these years. What have you been doing, Pearl?"

Almandine's ear twitched under her hood and a toothy grin plastered itself on her face, "How'd you like to find out, Spinel?" Spinel near jumped, smacking his head against the floor. "OW! Wha-what?" He hadn't noticed just how close she had gotten in the short amount of time she had been in the training room. "what are you talking about?" His question came a little too quickly, and he mentally reeled himself back. Almandine's smile only grew in size, "Come. We must talk. Kunzite, find Tourmaline and send her to my room." With that Almandine turned with Spinel in stride behind her. "What is this about, Almandine? What did you need me for?" Spinel held a certain level of high regard for Almandine, unlike anyone else's. She was more than his leader. She was an adversary he could not best, no matter how hard he tried, and yet she made no direct indication of her true strength. She never seemed to overexert herself, no matter what. He could respect power and that is exactly what she had, in spades. Almandine closed the door to her room as Spinel stepped through.

In the time it took to reach her room, Almandine's smile had not abated. She walked over to a wall and gestured Spinel to be seated at a couch across from her. Spinel hesitated, but sat in time, looking physically uncomfortable. If he had done anything to displease Almandine, he would know, right? And what was with that smile? This all felt so creepy and wrong. "Almandine," He began. "What do you need from me? What about Earth?" Almandine's smiled faded into a simple, warm grin, sensing that it was bothering him for her to smile to strongly. "Tell me, Spinel. Tell me about Earth. What do you know? Indulge me." Spinel hesitated. He had no clue as to why she would want to know this. "uh..?" Almandine made an 'oh.' "Of course. You have no reason to tell me anything about Earth past the fact that I want to know about it. In fact, no one knows anything about Earth, save for a select few. I just wondered why that is. No one seems to know anything about it at all. Do you think you could indulge my curiosity?" By now she had pulled down her hood, revealing her soft face and warm smile fully. A luminescent bright pink blush spread across Spinel's face and flushed through the rest of his body. "W-well, I-i-i suppose I c-could try." He felt the words get caught in his throat, forcing him to clear it. "Yea, sure, no problem! E-easy!" Almandine looked as ecstatic as she felt, mentally keeping herself from jumping. This was an uncharacteristic emotion for her that she would have to look into later.

"Well," Spinel began. "My memory of Earth was this beautiful landscape. Lost of mountains, plenty of cute fauna, wonder forests and fields. The oceans were magnificent. Everything was some sight to behold, but we were there for a different reason than sight seeing. We were there to take over the Earth as a new gem world. I can't say I'm too proud of the cause, but they were a hick planet then. They gave us so much in the form of resources. It had so much untapped potential. Just when we thought we finished setting up and could look away, this gem, goes by the name Rose Quartz, stepped in. She destroyed our forces with hers. Apparently she gathered a bunch of other gems who were also done with destroying the planet. They thought it was unjust, and in hindsight I guess it kind of… was..? I don't know. All I know is that it brought on a civil war between gems. The Diamonds don't like people talking about it. They brought all of their strongest gems in to fight in it. Why weren't you enlisted?" He paused, staring blankly at Almandine. Almandine thought, "I must have been away on a different mission at the time." She waved her hand at something behind him and said, continue." Spinel thought about his words for a second. "well, the civil war. The civil war between Rose and the Homeworld. We fought long and hard. I remember my battle quite vividly. Especially against her. This one gem named Pearl. She was as graceful as she was beautiful. We worked together often, too, before the war. I regret ever raising my spear to her, but i would have easily out fought her if she wasn't so-" "Clever?" "Yea! That.. She was such a quick thinker. The battlefield was all hers. She learned the terrain in a matter of seconds and while she could barely keep up with my strikes, in retrospect, I was really no match for her. We were pushed back by Rose's forces. This was also the same time we lost Kyanite. He didn't retreat when the laser was fired. I doubt anyone survived, but the Earth is still there to this day, untouched and unknown. why do you ask?"

Just then a bubbly laugh permeated the room. "Oooooh, I wouldn't say 'untouched' Spiny." Almandine chuckled, "Here's the little nuisance now." Tourmaline walked into the room through the opened door behind Spinel and jumped over and onto the couch next to him. "In the gem! Whatya need, Almand? Kunzy sent me over to chat." Almandine gave her a look. "Right, right, Earth. Well, the civil war that you guys fought was for more than just getting the gems off the planet. There was something on the line there. Something big." Her face and tone fell. "Something that made me." Spinel's face contorted into one of shock while Almandine lowered hers in solemn respect. "ANYWAY!" Tourmaline perked up, "The world of Earth was to be used as a kindergarten. All those wonderful resources made new gems like me. Made a whole bunch of them, too, but Spinel's right. The planet's pretty much been abandoned by gems after that war. No warps on it even work anymore. Why do you wanna know, Almand?" Almandine turned again to face the window, "Well, it was brought-" Tourmaline let out an awful groaning sound, causing Spinel and Almandine to jump. "Enough with this brooding baloney! Just TELL US!" Almandine turned again, visibly blushing under her cowl. "R-right. Sorry. Beryl talked to me earlier today. We're convinced it's time we got out of here. We need to leave gem Homeworld, and Earth sounds like the safest place to go."

The day crept on and lapsed into weeks after Almandine shared her intentions with the rest of her small group of Renegade Gems. The only two not initially told about the plan was her close friend and partner Onyx and Spinel's favorite sparring partner, Kunzite. Onyx was the most worried about the plan, showing an extreme amount of discomfort and anxiety. She was the most violent and cautious of the team, and worked the closest with Almandine. She understood her so well, or at least she thought she did. This decision felt so sudden, so spur of the moment. It left her feeling vulnerable and she feared what the diamonds would do to them if they caught wind of their traitorous plan. Kunzite herself took the idea with a more apathetic tone.

"Almandine. What is this really about? You said we needed to escape the diamonds. What else is there? Why are we really leaving? what's the proble-pro-p-p.." Onyx's questions were cut off, reduced to simple stuttering as Almandine brushed her hair behind her ear. "Onyx, you know I love you all. I'm tired of all the loss. Just last year we lost Carnelian, and Kyanite has been missing for millennium on end. The diamonds are afraid of our strength, face it. We're some of the strongest gems here altogether. I believe they fear a second civil war and are getting rid of us so as to prevent it. We are deemed a threat." Onyx's face was stained a bright orange-red, but she shook it off to rebut, "Then why don't we just fight them already? So many people are tired of their rule! They have to be! You can't be the only one! Let's just take them out no-" "NO!" Almandine cried. Onyx was taken aback. Almandine was not prone to outbursts of any kind. She quickly regained her composure and pulled her hod tightly over her head. "No. We cannot risk that. Many people may be tired of her rule, but that's too general and hopeful. We cannot risk that. Not yet. They rule with fear and power and fear is stronger than any rebellious motivations." She turned again to look out of her window at the Diamond's spire tower. "I won't allow any more of us to be lost to their vile wills. I cannot lose anyone else. I won't lose anyone else. I'd much sooner lose myself." She turned back to Onyx and pulled her hood back. Almandine walked calmly back to onyx, watching happily as the blush crept back to her cheeks. "I love you too much to let you get hurt." Onyx's legs began to shake as she felt Almandine's hand grace her cheek.

"Tourmaline, where are Onyx and Almandine?" The multicolored sprite of a gem laughed and looked up to see Beryl. "They're in Almand's room, Big Sis!" The larger gem patted the former's head and smiled, "Thanks, little tyke. I needed to talk to them. Go get Kunzite and Spinel. The plan's been compromised and we need to go. Now." Tourmaline's almost permanent smile shattered into worry like a delicate vase. She hopped off of the chair she was currently inhabiting and rushed into a long hall cluttered with doors that lead to vacant rooms. Tears always stained her cheeks when she went through this hall. Each door lead to a room full of memories of people she hadn't had the opportunity to meet. She could only imagine the pain that the other gems had gone through.

Beryl closed the distance to Almandine's room with surprising uncharacteristic haste. Time was running short and they needed to move. She hurried to open the door and stepped through the threshold to see Onyx and Almandine kissing deeply in each other's arms, "Almandine we nee- Whoa-kay." Beryl began, directing her gaze elsewhere. "AH!" Onyx cried, "Beryl! What the hell!?" Almandine herself straightened her hair and brought her hood back over her face. "Beryl. What do you need?" Beryl coughed and finished her statement, "We need to leave now If we're leaving at all." Almandine bristled. "You don't mean-" "They know," Beryl interrupted. "and we need to leave. Now. They're coming." Beryl turned towards the door. "I've already set up a our ship. We can leave if we hurry. They don't know where we're going. But they know. And we need to go" Beryl looked around for a second scanning the room, as if looking for some hidden fourth person. "I'll get the others together. We'll be at the ship. We'll need her as well. Don't delay." With that Beryl exited the room and bolted down a pure green corridor.

Almandine sighed and closed the door. Onyx stuttered, "Almandine, didn't you hear her!? W-we need to go! The Diamonds will be here too soon for this!" Almandine held her hand out to Onyx, "Onyx. Do you trust me?" Onyx was taken aback, and nervously started ringing her hands. "I- what? What are you-" She stopped short, unable to process the words. Almandine got a little closer, still holding out her hand. "Do you trust me? Do you believe in me? In my idea? In running away?" Onyx looked hurt. "Almandine, I don't need to believe in your plans to know that you're right. I'm no where near as smart as you or Beryl. That's why you lead us and she makes plans with you. You've never lead us astray and I've no reason to believe you will now. We've seen great victories and horrible losses, but we've survived this long. I love you and would follow you to the ends of this world and any other!" Onyx took Almandine's hand and pulled her into a slow and heartfelt Bolero. Almandine sighed, "Let's hope this goes well, Onyx. I've never been more scared." Onyx smiled haughtily, "We've never failed like this before. I don't plan to start now." Onyx raised her arms, relishing the feeling of the simple touches of Almandine as a warm glow began to spread through the pair.

The light pierced through the window and painted the walls of the room in a heavenly bath. Once their two gems fused all that was left was a hooded figure, standing at a towering 9 feet 7 inches tall. Her eyes were pitch black with blood red pupils that matched her tar black and red tipped hair. She wore a tattered rusty red hood over a black scale tunic that covered everything but her navel where an Onyx gemstone lie dead center. Her legs were bare, save for pure black thigh high boots. The woman looked outside of the window, only to see that a ship was parked just outside of the entrance to the building. She smiled and made a sound akin to that of a purr and pulled her hood up over her face, "Oh, let the games begin." Her voice was not the calm of Almandine nor did it carry the sharpness of Onyx's tone but something more seductive and sinister, like the sound of a freshly sharpened knife digging into someone's neck. With those words she strode out of the room and headed calmly down the long green corridor for her ship's hangar.

"Where are you planning on blasting off to, eh, Beryl? Where is Almandine, or Onyx for that matter? Are they not your superiors? Neither I nor the other diamonds have given you orders to leave on a mission. In fact, if I recall correctly, Tourmaline had been injured and needed to recover so we gave you a week to relax." Beryl remained stoic as the gems behind her bristled in a mixture of fear and anger, "And that is exactly what we are doing. We are primed to go to a gem owned planet solely for relaxation. Now please, move out of the way." Yellow Diamond looked at the ship and then back to Beryl, "I don't think I will be moving, but you will be." Beryl shifted into a defensive stance, holding her arms one over the other and in front of her. Three small and mirror-like cubes bled out of her hands and floated in the space between them. Kunzite yelled past Beryl, not willing to get between the two gems in front of her, "You'll regret holding us here! Just wait!" Yellow Diamond cackled and held her hand out, palm facing the group of renegades. "I don't even care where you're trying to run off to anymore! You won't make it there anywa-" Just as her sentence met it's end, she was cut off by the crooked blade of a scythe catching her in the stomach from behind. The blade pulled her in a wide swing, sending her flying in the giant room until she came crashing into a large green wall. The renegades stood, slack jawed as the large fusion of Almandine and Onyx stood in all her glory. Her weapon was a sleek and slender shafted scythe with an huge red axe head on the opposite end of the blade. The weapon let off an eerie red glow around the edge of the axe and scythe, betraying a more sinister quality to it. Beryl was the first to recover from the shock and hustled the rest of the renegades onto the ship as it prepared for launch. "Bloodstone. Make this fast. You have ten minutes to finish up with her before we launch, let alone before the other diamonds get here."

Bloodstone stood stoic, facing the wall, and flashing a thumbs up to Beryl with her free hand. The scythe rested slack against her shoulder as she waited for Yellow Diamond's counter attack. "YOU WOULD RAISE YOUR BLADE TO ME!? YOU FOOLS!" A beam of yellow light rushed through the air toward the ship from where Yellow Diamond crashed. Bloodstone raised her scythe and struck the beam, forcing it to veer off and out of the hangar and into the open air outside. "You are the fool if you think you can take me alone, Yellow Diamond. It was cocky of you to come alone." Yellow Diamond pushed out of the wall and landed gracefully in front of the towering gem. She laughed daintily, as though she hadn't just been launched across the room. A blinding blue light appeared just under Bloodstone, and before she could react she was encased in a clear blue pillar of light. "What makes you think I would ever come here alone? I'm not so stupid as to think you would come along easily!" Two figures stepped in through the corridor that lead to the hangar. The first figure was identical to Yellow Diamond in ever aspect, as was the second, save for the fact that she was blue. The other diamond wore all white as opposed to blue or yellow.

The pillar began to crack as Bloodstone forced herself free. "You still want to fight? That would be silly and such a waste." said Clear Diamond in a deadpan tone. The Pillar cracked in a burst of light and Bloodstone pushed away from the second circle of light forming under her, "I fight because I have to! Not because I want to!" Brandishing her scythe, she struck the ground, digging the blade deep into the floor and sending dark red shock waves coursing towards the two new diamonds. They pushed away from each other, going in opposite directions from the waves. Capitalizing on their current airborne status, Bloodstone converged on Clear Diamond, striking at her with the axe end of her weapon, embedding her into the wall that she was in front of. Yellow beams peppered the area around Bloodstone, burning with each landed blast. She bolted down the wall, keeping just in front of the line of fire of the lasers. Yellow Diamond predicted her movement and charged a larger blast a little further down the stretch of wall. Bloodstone was trapped as a blue circle began to form on the floor under her as well. Thinking fast, she kicked off of the wall and into the air, dodging the blast and the pillar altogether. "Fool, you've left yourself open." Clear Diamond pulled herself out of the wall and waved her hand at the dark gem in the air. Millions of tiny white gems began to materialize around her and pointed sharply at Bloodstone. As they flew on to their mark she reared her scythe back and sliced through the air, sending a dark extended wave of energy that ended next to Yellow Diamond. She then melted into the wave and moved with it down to the yellow gem, catching her off guard, thinking she had dodged an attack. Yellow Diamond created a barrier of light between bloodstone and herself, to no avail.

The taller gem lashed out with her leg, shattering the light like glass and catching her in the jaw. She then followed up on the stunning blow by slashing into her with the wicked axe head and pushing her away again, this time into Blue Diamond. "BLOODSTONE! YOU'RE OUT OF TIME! WE NEED TO GO! NOW!" Spinel's voice pierced through the air. She looked back at Spinel in desperation. "I'm sorry." She whispered to herself. "Wait, what?" She said. Her arms rose reflexively, as though she didn't need to think to act anymore. Onyx began to identify as herself again, rather than Bloodstone. She began to panic, she didn't even feel the strength of Bloodstone anymore. She couldn't even feel Almandine anymore. Her arms were brought down heavily, embedding the blade in the floor. Bloody spikes began to sprout from the ground around the ship, pinning the oncoming diamonds in a forest of red thorns. Immediately after, Bloodstone began to glow again. From the light, the Onyx was pushed forcibly out from behind, leaving the Almandine crystal reforming standing upright. Almandine pulled her hood over her head and looked back to onyx, "ONYX RUN! TAKE THE OTHERS! ESCAPE WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"

Onyx's face contorted in pain and tears streaked down her cheeks, but she forced herself into the ship. The ship pulled in its boarding hatch and powered up, pushing off of the ground and hovering. Almandine felt a tear trailing down her cheek as she watched the ship blast off, silently waiting for the diamonds to break free of her trap. Once the ship had left her sight she pulled her weapon, a blood red axe that radiated a second, and longer, blade made of deep red energy after the first steel blade, out of the ground. With the retrieval of her weapon so too did the spikes recede. Almandine turned to face the diamonds as they fell to the floor. "So, which one of you wants to go first?" Almandine dropped her axe, letting it dissipate into light and took on a boxer's stance. Blue Diamond glared coldly at the red gem. "So they escaped. We still have you. Do you intend to fight us without your weapon? You can barely handle us in your fusion, how do you expect to fight us alone? Just give up. You lost." Almandine visibly seethed from under her cowl, "I'll never give up! Not until you pay for what you've done, for what you're doing! I would rather die than live under you! NOW FIGHT ME!" Her body surged with a burning red energy and she launched into Blue Diamond, sending her flying back down the corridor in a burst of red light. Following up her surprise attack she threw a volley of punches at Clear Diamond, catching her off guard and knocking her down, but not landing many hits. A hot blast from behind sent Almandine flying away and into the far wall on the other side of the hangar. Clear Diamond stood back up and growled before sending a barrage of white sharp gems flying after her. There they crashed into the wall, easily cracking the wall into rubble.

Almandine lay helpless under the rocks, languid and exhausted. Between panted breaths she struggled against the rocks that kept her pinned before ultimately giving up. The three diamonds loomed over her, dangerously. "What should we do with her?" Blue Diamond started. "We could always just destroy her gem." Yellow Diamond finished. "That would be the easiest way to be rid of her." Almandine started laughing. "What's so funny? You may have gotten your friends out but you will die in return." Almandine's laughter broke out in a fit of coughs and wheezes, but persisted afterward.

"I will not be dying here. Check me and you will find no gem on this body. I am far beyond anything you've ever faced. There is no gem that can defeat me!" Her body began to glow again. "I WILL NOT LOSE HERE!" With monstrous force, she blew out of the rubble and jumped to strike Yellow Diamond, who in turn caught her by her neck. "You have no gem!? What are you!?" She spat every word with scalding ferocity. With monstrous force, Yellow Diamond slammed the red gem into the broken pile of wall fragments.

Finally out of energy, Almandine panted and barely held on to the consciousness she had left. She chuckled as lightly as she could, as every action hurt with piercing agony. "I do have a gem, I'm just -COUGH COUGH- just.. not stupid enough to leave it on my body…" The diamonds exchanged glances between themselves. "Fine." began Clear Diamond. "We'll just have to suffice for the second best thing." Her frown changed into a wicked grin. "If we cannot kill you, we will simply break your mind, body, and your will."Almandine's face contorted into a mix of pain and fear, "No.. No you wouldn't!"

Blue Diamond picked up the red gem and, with yellow Diamond's aid, dragged her down the corridor. "Can, will, and have, Almandine. You truly underestimate us." Almandine shook weakly against their grips, unable to break free. Yellow Diamond chuckled. "You will become a slave, mind and body, to our wills. You will no longer be yourself, so say goodbye to whatever pretty little ideas you have about your friends and your life. It is over now. You really have lost."

Almandine's deepest fears began to set in. "No… NO NO NO NOOOOOOOO!" She cried as loud as she could, but to no avail as she was dragged helplessly into the diamond's ship and hauled off into the Diamond Spire.

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**Editing is stupid, but necessary when I can't count on my busy af friends to do it for me. Sucks I'm just as busy af, tho.**


	2. Revival

**Chapter 2 of my Steven Universe fanfiction, "Renegade Gems!" I am significantly pleased with it and at the same time also displeased with it. However, now we're actually getting to story and characters we understand! Enjoy, comment, and please give your thoughts. I love to read reviews!**

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"HAHAHAHAHA!" Amethyst burst with laughter, filling the clutter filled room with the raucous noise. "Steven, you're killing me here!" Steven was gasping for breath as he continued with the story, "No! No no, wait, there's more! There's more!" Steven took a deep breath to stabilize himself. "So, the ring leader feeds the chickens the seeds, not knowing that it was full of fire salts, and that's why we were fighting fire breathing chickens today!" Amethyst and Steven both cracked up in roaring hilarity. The two flailed and shook violently in their mirth, throwing their arms in all directions. Amethyst fell to the floor, holding her sides for dear life, while Steven tried to help her back to her feet weakly. When she finally jumped back up she pushed Steven back, "Whoa-oa-oooooooOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He yelled as he fell into the puddle that lead to the burning room. "STEVEN!" Amethyst screamed as she watched him fall, unable to take action.

As Steven fell he bumped into a bubble holding a round blue gemstone. The gem's bubble, a Roze Quartz bubble, popped and the gem fell with him. "WAAAAAAAA- Urk, UCHHH!" Steven's screams were cut off when the gem fell into his mouth, causing him to choke and gasp for air. Amethyst jumped down the puddle in the hopes that somehow she could catch him. She held out her arms desperately, yelling, "STEVEN!" all the while. Garent and Pearl rushed into the burning room just in time for garnet to dive in and prevent the two of them from falling into the incinerator. "What is going on here!? Do you have any idea what you almost did, Amethyst!? You could have gotten yourself and Steven killed!" Pearl's shrill voice pierced through the room, stricken with worry. Garnet stood up, just a few feet away from the incinerator, with both of the young gems in tow. "What are you two doing?" She asked in her monotone voice.

Amethyst began stuttering, "W-w-well, Steven and I w-were j-just messing around in my room w-when he…" She paused as her mind raced. She didn't want to get in trouble for putting Steven in danger. At least, not if she could help it. "SLIPPED! Yeah, h-he slipped into the p-puddle and fell through! Naturally, I jumped down and tried to catch him!" The gems turned their attention to the young gem in question who was flailing his arms and turning blue in the face. "Steven!? What's wrong!?" Garnet's voice nearly broke in confusion. Pearl rushed to his side and wrenched him from Garnet's arm, "He's choking! We need to get whatever is stuck in his throat out of there now!" Pearl looked uneasily at Steven, almost unsure of what to do. "How… do I go about this?" She questioned her fellow gems. Amethyst jumped out of garnet's other arm and almost yelped, "EASY! You just shove your hand down his throat and yank the thingy out!" Pearl looked horrified and glared at the purple gem who wore a crazed smile as though she were half serious, "Tell me you're joking, Amethyst!" Amethyst looked hurt, "Of COURSE I was joking! Now figure something out! You're the BRAINS here!"

Pearl's face streaked with panic as Steven's body slowly started twitching and his eyes glazed ever so slightly. Tears ran down her cheeks as she was unable to take action for her young friend. Suddenly and quickly Garnet grabbed Steven and began to roughly pat, almost punch, his back. Finally after a few seconds of patting the hacked up the small blue gemstone and gasped for the precious air that his lungs were deprived of for so long. Pearl looked up in a mix of shock and disbelief. "G-garnet! How did you know what to do!?" Garnet looked on at the blue gem on the floor and said, "I just thought that violence would be the answer." Pearl slapped her forehead at the distaste of her answer. Just as Pearl prepared to yell at Amethyst and Garnet about their recklessness, Steven yelped in a hoarse voice, "G-guys..? The gem's d-doin something weeeird…"

Amethyst and Pearl looked up in fear, while Garnet summoned her gauntlets and stood in front of Steven, prepared for combat. However, to their surprise, what formed was no corrupted monster gem, but a cracked gem manifested in it's "human" form. The blue glow around the gem's body began to solidify into that of a male with short cut navy blue hair and bangs covering his right eye. At first the reformed gem made no attempt to stand or even communicate. Instead he growled in a warped voice and wildly searched the room. Abruptly, he tried to lunge forward, stumbling on his new legs and tumbling onto his face. Amethyst brought her hands to her face, stifling her laughter. "Hey, Garnet, what's up with this guy? It's like he's never- Garnet?" Amethyst stopped herself when she looked up to see the taller gem's normally stoic face scrunched up in worry and alarm.

The blue gem seemed utterly fixated on his newly acquired limbs, staring intently at his hands, almost in disbelief. He began to make almost human noises, as though he were forming words, "I-i-i-i.. uh… wh-wh… who…?" He looked up and stared at the gems, "Who… What am I? What happened to m-" He paused and focused on the gems. "You. You did this to me. YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU ALL DID THIS!" He began to gibber on and panic, trying incredibly hard to stand up only for gravity to drop him back onto the hot tiles of the floor. Garnet tensed up and Pearl looked physically uncomfortable with the situation. She grasped on to Garnet's arm and held her hand over her mouth. Amethyst's laughing ebbed and took the form of a couple of uncomfortable side glances to Garnet and Pearl as she stepped back. "I just… I just need to… I need to g-get away from here. I need to get back. They don't know I'm gone." He seemed distant and looked at the floor for about a minute in haunting silence.

Garnet stepped forward, "Who are you? Do you remember yourself? Do you remember them? Do you remember anything?" The blue gem looked up at Garnet with hollow blue eyes. Suddenly his right eye under his bangs began to glow and the hair rose away, revealing his gemstone underneath. He spoke as he raised his hand to his gem eye, "I don't remember much of anything. But I do remember you. And her. I remember I had to kill you. No matter the cost." A handle pushed itself out of the gem and he stood up almost casually. Garnet bristled and rushed him, "All I needed to hear." In one deft movement the gem grabbed the handle, pulled out a short handled warhammer with a spiked head and a curved back side, and deflected her first punch. Anticipating the block she followed up with a second lighting fast jab, sending him into a wall. The gem was dazed but not unconscious, and when he looked up he met another punch, sending him reeling on the floor. His body eerily moved as he squirmed away from another punch.

The gem jumped back and found himself against another wall with another fist coming quickly. His eerie gaze did not break from her shades as he ducked the punch and kneed her in the gut. Stunned, Garnet shifted herself to move away from another attack but only moved into the hammer's butt coming into her side . She hissed in a mix of anger and pain and swung back, catching him by the jaw and sending him to the floor again. He toppled again and rolled until he was on all fours, "I also remember I could not fight you." He looked over to pearl, "You on the other hand. Spinel had trouble with you, but you were no match for me." He paused and said to himself, "Maybe he is more merciful than I." Then he crawled forward towards the three at the center of the room. Amethyst and Pearl jumped in front of Steven, weapons drawn. He looked at Amethyst and paused, "You I don't remember. Were you a failure?" She visibly seethed at his comment, but her conviction was shaken and she loosened her grip. The gem then diverted his attention to Steven. "And you. I don't know who or what you are," His voice fell hushed, "but I feel like I should."

Steven's eyes widened and his mouth instinctively opened and closed. He gulped and edged away from the lava pit. Pearl growled, "You would threaten us after reforming? Steven brings you back from that madness and you immediately want to fight!? Who do you think you are!?" The gem snapped his neck towards pearl and stared at her in his same ghostly manner. His entire visage shattered it's previous neutrality and was replaced by burning fury and pain. "Who am I?" His voice cracked like thin ice and his eyes began to glow sharp blue light. Amethyst and Pearl brandished their weapons and Garnet positioned herself behind him. He stood up slowly, never breaking his eye contact with pearl. Once up, however, he whipped his hammer at her, launching her up and through the puddle into Amethyst's room, yelling, "I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM! HOW DARE YOU ASK ME THAT!" Garnet rushed and grabbed him from behind, restraining his arms. "AMETHYST!" Amethyst returned her attention to the problem at hand and used her whip to try and lash his legs together. The blue gem kicked at the whip, tying it around, and kicked back, pulling Amethyst with it.

"Whoa! Garnet, do something! This guy is getting out of hand!" Garnet shoved the gem towards the lava pool and rushed him again. As soon as he turned his face met Garnet's gauntlets and near knocked him into the pool. He reclaimed his balance and threw his own assault into high gear. He grabbed his hammer and pulled a second away from it. Garnet and the gem swung violently and quickly, meeting each other blow for blow. Steven retreated from the center room and bolted toward a hall he was sure lead out to Pearl's room. When he looked back he saw the gem fly across the room again and smack into the wall. He jumped and whimpered with his back to the wall, "What do I do? What do I do?" "Well first things first, you gotta get outta here!" Amethyst yelled through the hall threshold and ran for Garnet who was jumping through the puddle and into the purple gem's room.

Garnet and Amethyst hurried up through the puddle and searched their immediate surroundings for the blue intruder. "GAH, I don't see him!" Amethyst whined. "We need to find Pearl. Make sure she's alright. She took quite a hit back there." As if on queue, Pearl jumped down from on top of a pile of trash. "Okay, Amethyst, seriously this time. These piles need to be cleaned up. I got stuck in between a mattress and about a dozen rusty and broken swords and axes! I had to move them all just to get out of there without hurting myself or reverting!" Amethyst hissed, "You messed with my pile of jank weapons!? How COULD you!?" Garnet bopped them both on the head, "We have a much larger problem on our hands right now. We need to find that blue gem or else…" Pearl hesitated, "Garnet, Or else what?" Garnet turned and began walking, "Else he finds us. Split up. Keep your wits about you. We can't afford to get caught off guard. If you find him yell and we'll be on our way."

The blue gem, hidden behind a nearby pile of buckets, toasters, and tattered cloth, eavesdropped on their every word. He shivered and forced himself to relax against the pile when they split. "They couldn't afford getting caught?" He thought. "What could he do against them?" He needed to figure things out and fast. He needed to figure himself out, figure out where he was, how to get out, and most importantly what he was doing there. He shifted against the pile and observed his location. "The purple one had gone and wandered over in an ambiguous direction. The thin one went looking in the opposite direction and over to a section with a lot of water. The tall one was out of sight and I didn't see where she went." He thought. "There's nothing that gives her away either." He sighed and relaxed against the pile, closing his eyes. When he opened them he saw garnet on top of a large pile and scouring the room. She hadn't noticed him yet, but it wouldn't be long if he stayed here. He needed to move, and fast. Silently cursing his inactivity, he could hear Amethyst returning again.

"SIIIIIGH! I can't find this guy anywhere Garnet!" Garnet didn't even turn to her direction, "Just keep looking. We can't lose him." Amethyst plopped down on the opposite side of the pile the blue gem was hiding on. Worry spread through his heart. If he was going to make an escape, now was his chance. He bolted from his current position between piles and towards the direction that Pearl went. "If any of them, I know I can beat her in a fair fight. I'll apprehend her if I need to and get out of here! Easy!" The water seemed to take the place of the heaps of trash as he delved deeper into this section of the room. He turned around one final pile of garbage before slipping on a pool of water and falling into another. This pool lead down a waterfall, cascading through a humongous room full of similar rapids. "WAAAAAAAGH!" The gem boy yelled as he surged downward. The cataract flooded into a pillar of water and perfectly flowed over the top, cascading endlessly down. The torrent slammed the gem into the pillar, pushing him down with intense speed.

He swam back to the surface only to find that it felt solid to his touch. He could push through and the pull himself up and over the top. Just when he broke the surface he was shot back down. "There you are. I FOUND HIM! In my room no less. Great." Pearl held her spear to her side and gazed into the clear water in search of the gem's body. "I may have lost track of him again though…" She whispered to herself. The current pulled The lost gem down deep into the first pillar and a rapid brought him out into another one. He broke the surface and pulled himself over, laying on his back. Gasping for breath and holding his hands to his face he waited to see if they'd found him again. He sighed and pushed himself onto his chest to see where he was. He was on the largest pool in the room and, from what he could tell, the three gems chasing him were none the wiser. He sighed, "What am I going to do? I don't even know what's going on anymore."

"I could give you a hand. You look like you need it a lot." The gem jumped at the voice behind him and turned to defend himself. To his surprise Steven was sitting with his legs crossed, staring at him with sympathy in his eyes. "We'd have to move fast, but I could get you out of here. They'll know as soon as we open the door. Do you trust me?" The gem was speechless, but he nodded profusely. This was way out of left field for this day, but he'd take it. Steven got up and turned, slowly walking to the edge of the pillar. He gestured for the gem to follow him, so he did. Steven jumped off the edge and onto a waterfall that washed up onto a ledge and in front of the door to the beach house. Steven placed his hand on the door and it opened. "STEVEN!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Steven turned and grabbed the blue gem's hand, pulling him through and pushing him towards the door.

"RUN!" The gem bolted for the door to the beach house, fumbling with the handle in the sudden afternoon sun. Right when he opened it he felt the blunt force of Garnet's gauntlets at the center of his back, sending him flying through the air, through the porch railing, and tumbling onto the hot sand. Garnet was driven, pushing herself faster and faster into her follow up punch. The blue gem steadied himself and let his anger take over his swing. The force between the two sent them both flying, but Garnet was the first to recover. She jumped forward and pressured his recovery with a sweeping kick at his legs. She caught him just right and he dropped. "STOP! GARNET STOP!" Steven yelled as he bolted across the sands himself. Tears began to form at the edges of his eyes. The gem tried to bring himself back up, only to be caught in his right eye by Garnet's fist.

He folded to the ground and tried to look up in defeat. The last few images his blurred vision allowed him to catch were the sun just cresting the hill on which rested the lighthouse, the face carved into the hillside, staring down as though it were judging him, and Garnet's grimacing face and her fist coming dangerously close to ending his renewed life. He had come to accept that this was his fate and rested his head against the sand.

He waited for the pain. Except there was no pain. He opened his eyes and realized he couldn't move. Along with that, he was surrounded by a pink barrier of some sort. Just barely he could hear muffled yelling from outside of the bubble. "Steven! What are you doing!? This is far overstepping boundaries! This gem is too dangerous to be around! STEVEN!" "GARNET! I may not know what I'm doing, but I have a good feeling about this! You always say I have good ideas! Well this is a good idea! Trust me!" Garnet watched as Steven, in his own bubble, rolled himself over to the blue gem. Fear and worry broke her normally stoic face and she glanced back at Pearl and Amethyst who were right behind her with equally scared faces. The two bubbles fused together and Steven knelt down to look at the blue gem. "You are the one who helped me before. Thank you again, but what do you think you can do for me? My gem is cracked and soon will break. I am gone. Just leave me be." Steven frowned, "Aww, don't give me that. Look, I'll just heal you. I figured your gem didn't heal fully anyway, since, you know, you can't remember anything right. It sucks that you're about to die without remembering any of that stuff, but at least you could use your weapon, though, right?" The blue gem looked close to tears.

"Right." Steven bit his lip and looked back. He jumped when he saw Garnet pressing her face against the bubble and cupping her hands around her eyes so she could see. Her shades were off so he could see each of her eyes as they frantically scanned the insides of the bubble. Steven bit his lip again and turned back to the gem who was now crying softly into the ground. "I can't even move or feel my body anymore. Please," He pleaded up to Steven. "help me, or go." Steven clapped his hands together, and spoke full of conviction and confidence, "I will heal you. Where is your gem?" The gem shifted his head and said, "My right eye. Please hurry, I can almost feel it snapping!" The urgency made Steven shiver. He pulled the bangs away from his face and uncovered a small blue gem with a large flaw running right through the middle. "This… May be a bit weird, but trust me. It works. I'll have you back to normal in no time." Steven licked his palm and brought it to the gem. the blue gem shivered and said, "That is disgusting, kid." Suddenly a soft light shone from under Steven's palm. For the first time that day the blue gem smiled. "But I can feel it working!"

"Hahahaha! This is great, I can already feel my strength coming back. Thanks, kid!" Steven frowned, "My name's Steven, but I don't feel like It's done yet. Let me try one more time, alright?" The blue gem sat with his legs crossed and replied, "Do what you feel like you need to do." Steven licked his hand and, once again, reached up for his gem. This time the glow was far stronger and appeared in both eyes. The blue gem's mouth went slack and he gripped into his knees. Blue energy coursed under his skin in the form of veins, spreading from his gem. As soon as the light appeared, it died off and the veins returned to his gem. "I-i think I g-got it that time! heh heh…" Steven nervously backed up. The gem whispered something to himself. Steven squinted and sounded it out to himself, "K-kun... was that Kunzi- WHAAGH!" The gem jumped forward and grabbed Steven. "THANK YOU! SO MUCH! I-i know who I am! I remember everything! My name, it's Kyanite! I worked for The Diamond Authority under Almandine, and I fought against Rose Quartz! I was a… peacekeeper of sorts. I-i…" He paused and stared at the ground. "I hated it. There was one person who made it better, though." He smiled faintly before looking up to Steven. "Thank you. For everything. I owe you so much. I owe you my life."

Steven smiled his usual wide sunny smile and hugged Kyanite. Outside, Garnet was frantically trying to reach through the bubble and both Pearl and Amethyst had to pull her away from it. "Garnet, calm down! We can't do anything or else Steven may get hurt! He appears to have things under control!" Pearl sounded exasperated trying to hold her back. Amethyst just seemed upset that she was overreacting. "Yeah! Steven's got this! You need to chill out, Garnet!" Garnet jerked forward, "THEY MOVED!" She pushed against the other two gems, causing them to bore into sand. Just as she said this, the bubble popped. "STEVEN!" Garnet pushed the two gems aside and charged for Kyanite. "STOOOOOOP!" Steven stood between them with his hands outstretched, only to get picked up in her strong embrace. She jumped back with Steven in tow and took up her defensive stance again. "Garnet, stop! He's not going to fight you anymore! He's going to help us now!" Garnet hissed, "Steven, that's not simply how things-" "I was curious." She stopped. Kyanite scratched his head and looked up at the stone carving on the hill, "What happened to Rose. I never did get to see before the blast." The gems bristled as he continued. "They said she could heal gems. I wonder if she can heal other gems who were like me. Did she get caught in the blast, too, perhaps? I see you've found another gem who could heal since then." Steven piped up, "Uh… actually, I'm technically Rose Quartz."

Kyanite's eyes went wide. "You? But… how? I… Never mind. I am indebted to you, Steven. For now, I think I need to figure out some things. It's not my place to judge anything other gems do anyway. I took orders all my life." He looked out and into the ocean. "Who knows. maybe I'll learn something new by thinking for myself for once. I just need some time to think on things. This world looks amazing from what little I've seen of it yet. I just gotta ask, was all this violence worth it? I don't know. I never got paid to think. You guys clearly had someone who cared about you. You survived." Kyanite shrugged. "You can stay here if you want!" Steven added quickly. The three gems turned and Pearl hissed at him. "What?" Kyanite laughed softly, "Thank you, Steven. For everything. That means a lot to me. I don't really have anywhere I can go anyway, so I can't really afford to refuse either. I just hope your friends don't kill me in my sleep. For now, however, I think I'll take a walk."

Garnet sighed and let her hands drop and her gauntlets fade. She looked, for once in her life, physically, mentally, and utterly exhausted. Amethyst scratched her head. "What a strange gem." Said Pearl. "Think he'll be of any help to us like Steven said?" Garnet grunted and folded her arms, "He'll sooner be a nuisance. He'll only bring trouble, mark my words. Steven, be careful around him. He may seem like he's coming around, but he worked for the Diamond Authority. I don't trust him at all. Now, I need to go rest for a minute. Today has been too hectic for me." Pearl turned and walked with her, "Oh! I know just how we can relax, Garnet!" Amethyst stayed next to Steven, "Hey, he doesn't seem that bad to me. He just needs some help. You go do that for him, wontcha Steven?" She slapped Steven on the back and turned to head back into the house. Steven watched Kyanite walk down the beach for a minute before turning and looking up to the house. "Oh, guys… who's gonna fix the porch?"

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**This just in! Editing still blows. Also, when Amethyst says "SIIIIGH" she literally says... sigh. :D**


	3. Rage

**Okay! Next chapter done! This one took an incredible amount of time, and I'm particularly happy with how it turned out. I feel like it represents how I want Kyanite to turn out and connects the first chapter with what is happening as well as what is going to happen later. I feel like the next few chapters will be easy to figure out before they come out as well.**

* * *

Kyanite felt lost, both physically and mentally. On one end, he had just regained all of his strength in one short sweet burst. On the other, he also regained all of his memories and knowledge of his various emotional crises through the many years. Frankly he was shocked at how many times he'd been forced to "peace keep." "That's not me… I wouldn't do that. Would I? My memories don't lie…" The waves rolled up and tickled his feet. He hadn't noticed his outfit was bereft of shoes. It had always been like that for him, but now he felt like a whole new person. He never had to think back then. He never had to care. It wasn't in his job description. All he could do was hurt and fight and destroy. All he had to do was hurt and fight and destroy. He shivered, "What do I do now? I can't go back to Homeworld, and honestly would I want to? I tried to kill those gems, on multiple occasions no less. They won't accept me. My old bosses won't accept me. How can I accept myself knowing what I've done?" Kyanite plopped down on the wet sand and crossed his legs. "I need to focus. I'm not going to get anywhere if I can't access my powers." Slowly, but surely he began his recollections.

* * *

My face was stoic as I was being briefed by a tall, slender red gem. "And when you get the reactor from them just bring it back. Yellow Diamond wants you to kill'em off, but I'm your superior right now, not her. You are not to lay a finger on other gems, no matter what they say or do, do I make myself clear?" I nodded. "I understand, sir!" The red gem sighed. "You are far too strung up to be real. Do you have anything else you need to know?" I wasted no time, "No, sir!" She shook her head. Looking back on it, I believe she was losing her faith in me from the start. "Well then head out and please, Kyanite. You're a special case from the others. Refer to me as Almandine. And be careful out there." As I walked out of the room I passed a tall pale gem going in. I ignored it at first, but I did hear them exchange some words. "Is that the new guy? He any good?" Said the pale gem. The red one sighed and replied, "He is amazing. Nearly as strong as myself, but he's such a puppet. I'm worried about him. He has so much he needs to learn about life."

I could feel the tears beginning on my face, but I ignored them, telling myself it was the water splashing on me.

"FINE! Fine… take the stupid machine! Leave us stranded! You monster. The diamonds are tyrants and you're just a FUCKING PUPPET! You'll see what happens when Rose Quartz takes over. She'll make you all PAY!" The gem kept yelling as I walked off with the reactor. I ripped it right from their pod. At the time it didn't matter to me that they were left in the middle of nowhere. My job had been complete. I laid not a single hand on the gems in the vehicle, like Almandine said, and I got the reactor back, like Yellow Diamond told me to. In fact, I felt accomplished. Their words meant nothing to me then, but now...

Anger was starting to build up inside of me.

"Well, you got the reactor. Good work." I nodded and turned instinctively at the compliment. That was usually when I was dismissed. "Wait. How are the gems in the ship. You got the reactor, but what of them? Where are they?" I stopped. My mind was blank. I didn't know how to respond to this question. I'm sure she could all but hear the gears grinding in my brain, because she stepped up and said, "Okay. You needed to make sure that no harm came to them. Leaving them stranded there in the middle of nowhere is as good as leaving them for dead. Who knows what's out there waiting for them. They aren't strong gems. They were intellectuals. They could be broken as we speak!"

I didn't understand how to deal with this kind of reprimand. She sighed and leaned back on her desk. "Listen. I can't go having you being all apathetic on my missions like you normally could on your old ones. I'm not going to have you make any new casualties I gotta worry about. I'm the one who goes to retrieve broken or lost gems when they go missing. I don't have to, it's not my job, not anymore, but I do it because I'm a good person. I keep tabs on these things. Now, I need to go make sure that you didn't fuck up too severely." As it would happen, by the time she found their wreckage their gems were already gone with the wind. When Almandine returned that day she was furious.

Tears were coming down freely now, but I needed to focus and get through all of this. I wasn't even close to done.

I finally got a mission again, and it was one tailored to my strengths. The only downside was the fact that I was to be paired up with one of the gems under Almandine. In the mean time, I was trying to work on both my apathetic attitude and my social skills, or rather my lack thereof. There were a couple of large beasts rampaging around in a gem owned planet and causing some problems for the gems that colonized there. My partner was a tall gem named Spinel. I never did get to see the gem's face, but I never actually cared how he looked. Liked being referred to as a he, but he always wore a helmet and flowing pinkish-red scarf. Told me the scarf made him feel faster. I told him whatever makes him happy, He laughed. I guessed that I was on the right track with my socializing.

The ride to the planet was short. Maybe it was longer than I thought, but I never payed much attention during them anyway. When we got off it was painfully apparent how much trouble these monsters were causing. Spinel sounded near tears when he spoke of how angry the scene made him. The ground was razed and smoke still plumed high into the sky. Tall buildings now lay crumbled into nothing more than dust and debris. I, as usual, remained stoic and pushed forward through it all. I'm seeing why Almandine was so upset with me, honestly. I was insufferable. The monster weren't hard to find, in fact they were still in the city we dropped off in.

Spinel fought with a long spear that had four pointed blades coming out at the sides of the wide blade, two for each side. His came from the gem on his back, just under his neck. My own came from my right eye as usual: The engraved, blue dual hammers I had used earlier today. A smile crept graced my features and I could feel all of my stress and all of my tension finally relaxing. Strength filled my body like water flowing into a hollow stone cavity. I relished these moments when they happened. The soil softened under my feet as I pushed off, launching through the air with ease. "Have fun! I'll take this one over here! Just be careful!" Something about his words betrayed his knowledge of the situation, but as per usual, I ignored it. All I had in my mind was carnage and that was just what I intended to unleash.

The first monster was tall. Nowhere near as tall as a gem building, but definitely on the large side. It's body was composed of mostly soft skin and a viscous slime covering. It had many tentacle appendages and each became clear at the tips. I spared no time in closing the distance between us. The beast hadn't noticed me coming up, how that's possible is beyond me. I came crashing through rock and wall like they were paper. Had i always had such insane strength? My first strike definitely got the creature's attention, and all things considered that was really all it needed to do. The beast's weight was forcibly hefted to the side causing it's massive bulk to come toppling to the ground. "Top heavy, are you?" I turned to look at Spinel's fight. He appeared to be fighting a huge musclebound mountain of a beast. It's arms were roughly three times his size. "Aww, now that's a fight. Why couldn't I have gotten that o-OOOOOOOOOAAAAAH!" A tentacle had grabbed me in the middle of my musings and flung me into the side of a leaning tower. Crumbling walls and floors sent shock waves coursing through the ground. The beast mechanically began to hobble away for more destruction. I lifted a slab of rock off of my back and dusted myself off. "So, that's how it's going to be? Fine. I can play before I take on something more my speed." The strength I felt before was far more cold this time. This was what I was waiting for.

My arms coursed with the same blue veins that I saw when my gem was healed. The veins poured energy into my left hammer and it began to glow. With all of my might, I chucked it across the rubble and cracked the beast on it's lower blob-like body. When the hammer made contact the creature's entire lower body was encased in and pierced by sharp ice. A shrill scream penetrated the air as the beast wailed in agony. I was already in the air and descending fast. My short hammer had grown vastly in length, becoming a large war hammer now. "Ah, hush up with your screaming!" The impact alone shook me to my core and I was only remembering the event. I can only imagine the poor creature's pain. When the dust cleared, nothing remained at the impact zone. Some of the surrounding rocks were covered in a layer of frost, while the dirt under my feet crunched and crackled with the remnants of ice. I looked down and noticed a glint before returning to smashing monsters. It was a small pale gem cut in the shape of a square. I pocketed it because it seemed important at the time.

Spinel looked like he was having a good time with his Monster. I'd have hated to interrupt him now, but then It was the only thing on my mind. I hurled my hammer again and froze the rock monster mid swing. It gave off a bellow of pain unlike anything I'd ever heard. This pushed me onward with intense power as I once again jumped into a swing with my war hammer, slamming the beast into the dust. The dust cleared slowly and Spinel stood silently with his spear at his side. He just seemed to stare off into space. "What are you-" "Shush!" He held his hand up and paused again. After a second he twitched and looked behind him. The ground slowly began to vibrate around us, subtly at first, but those vibrations evolved into downright tremors. We looked at each other and nodded, seemingly thinking the same thing. He jumped away to get to higher ground while I remained here on the low end of the field. This isn't what I had in mind at all.

The soil opened up from below me, revealing a large gaping maw filled with teeth, each roughly my height. Apparently now was a good time for me to take action because I pushed off of whatever foothold I seemed to have into the air. The giant worm shot up from the soil, uprooting sediment and debris. "KYANITE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!" Spinel's voice fell on deaf ears, and honestly if I hadn't been right here I would have feared my own demise as well. "IT'S NOT ABOUT LIVING, SPINEL! I DO THIS FOR ME! NOBODY ELSE!" I drew my long hammer and reared back. Immense power yet again flowed through my body. Not only did I glow, but my hammer shown bright as day as well. This would be huge, and I couldn't wait. My momentum halted and gravity soon claimed me, sending me plummeting into the beast's mouth. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Just when the worm closed its giant maw I swung down with mighty force. The impact was akin to that of an earthquake. The poor creature didn't stand a chance. It practically erupted from the inside out, letting loose one final screaming roar before disappearing in a cloud of dust. Once cleared, only I remained standing, triumphant over the frostbitten dirt.

I let my war hammer fade and looked upon the ground. A rather large brownish gem lay covered in frost and muck. Holding it was sort of warm to the touch and it looked horrifyingly similar to those of other gems. Spinel's heavy footsteps slowly resounded through the thin air as he closed the distance between us. "So, the jobs done then. What's that?" Instinctively I hid the gem from Spinel, but I was too slow. Or maybe he was too fast. "Don't hide it from me, what is that? Did it come from that worm?" My lack of words must have irked him. He was a superior on this mission, technically, so my refusing to share my find was insubordination. I was surprised at myself. I didn't think I was capable of refusing orders at this time. Spinel reared up, towering over me. I knew for a fact I was much stronger than he could hope to be, but something about authority just left me in shambles. Maybe there were things that even my restored self couldn't remember. "Kyanite, show me what is in your hand. I will not ask again."

Reluctantly, I brought my hand forward and opened it, revealing the brown gemstone in my palm. Even behind his helmet I could tell how wide his eyes had become. "Did you find any more of these gems? Where did you get it?" His voice was quiet, but not calm. It was like being caught in the eye of a storm, but sitting right on the edge of it and looking into the face of danger. "These monsters." I pulled out the second one, from the blob creature. "They dropped them when I defeated them. I think this is their source of power, similar to ours, but… different still. Maybe we should destroy them." I summoned my hammer once more and dropped the gems to the cold floor. I drew back and prepared to shatter each gemstone without remorse. "No." Spinel picked up the gems. "Almandine will want to see these. This could also be our report, too. I'd hate to go through the work of writing something up anyway." He turned toward our ship, paused, then turned back to me. "Let's refrain from informing the Diamonds of this particular event, alright?" I nodded, absentmindedly, and followed him back to our ship.

I was trembling. The water was starting to rise and the cool, crisp air licked at my cheeks. Warmth gently swept over the field of sand that I was sitting upon. I took deep, slow breaths for a minute and stared into the sea. "This is going to kill me. I'm pretty sure I shouldn't continue." My grip tightened on my knees and I forced my eyes closed one more time.

When we returned to Homeworld we found ourselves struck out of the sky by some unknown assailant. Our ship was taken down just before we parked, as well. Spinel was the first to react. Rather, he was the only one to react. Maybe I just didn't care. I stayed inside of the ship as it crashed and erupted in flame. Spinel had already summoned his spear and I walked out of the wreckage with my own weapon. "What the hell was that!?" A thick purple smog surrounded us on all sides, ominously creeping closer. A ground rocking roar shook me to my core. "Spinel, keep your eyes ope-EEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I was forcibly pulled to the side by something deep in the fog. Spinel followed suit desperately, somehow keeping up with me in this obscuring fog. The force pulling me revealed itself in a clearing to be a large purple serpent with long flowing hair and sharp teeth. It had long sinewy arms that ran all the way down to it's tail on each side. The beast seemed to breath this fog out and being around it's main source began to make me light headed. Spinel did something while I was blacking out and it cried out, releasing me.

On the ground I banged my head against the ground to clear the haze. "ARRGH! THAT'S IT!" I summoned my hammer and rushed after the beast, now trying to gather itself and twitching on the ground. It looked back to me and tried to swing a couple of it's arms at me. They were obvious attacks and I personally removed each hand with my ruthless swings. I could hear Spinel tromping behind me to keep up with my assault. I felt confident now and went for the kill. Leaping through the air to meet the beast wasn't the hard part. The thing that made this hard was the fact that I needed to resist the fumes coming from its mouth. I smashed its head right through with a devastating blow, caving in it's mouth with a satisfying crunch. The beast disappeared in a puff of smoke and with it absorbed all of the purple smog. I wasted no time, still in a fit of rage and hazy confusion from the poison. I swung down again, even though nothing was there. "STOP!" I heard Spinel say it, but I didn't hesitate for one second. Just before my hammer hit the ground I could feel two things: a sharp pain and myself get lighter. On a second look, I could see something there where I was swinging. I saw a small gem. Very quickly, I reverted back inside of my gem.

When I reformed I was laying on a small cot in a white room. There was a door leading into a short hallway. I was in some kind of infirmary or something. My gem ached, like I had gone through some immense length of torture. Standing up was a task in and of itself as pain seared through my legs. I didn't care. I had some mission to do, although I had no idea at all what it could possibly be. The hallway was very short and lead into the main room, a living room, in Almandine's base. This room was also worryingly close to the landing bay where Spinel and I left to go on our mission. This fact made me worry about how often they needed to take their members into the infirmary for it to be so close to their own living area. I shuddered, feeling unlike myself, but continued walking. I needed to find Almandine and her office was just around another hall. There was a crash. And then another, and yelling.

I hesitated, and edged toward the corner that lead to her room. "Almandine, you need to calm dow-" Something slammed into a wall with a blunt thud. "NO! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THEY DID THIS! THEY SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO DO THIS TO THEIR OWN KIND!" Onyx's voice piped up over the din of yelling and stomping, "Almandine, you need to calm down! Think about this! Why would they do this, huh? Their war leader died in combat, the people are starting to dissent, they have a civil war on their hands on one of their colonized planets! Do you know how fast that will spread if they win!? We could very well have a war here on the Homeworld! This isn't something we can take lightly, and the diamonds need to do what they have to in order to win!" I looked past the corner just in time to see Almandine blitz into Onyx's face. She was visibly seething, anger bubbling over in her face, but her voice was grimly cold, "Onyx. This planet and it's leaders… maybe they need the change. I'm not afraid to say I support the idea of a civil war, and had I been the one on another planet colonizing I would have been the one to initiate it. I ask of you, how can you possibly believe that what they're doing is right in any sense? How can you, of all people, whom I put the utmost trust and faith in, believe in the Diamond Authority?" Onyx stood her ground and stared firmly into Almandine's eyes. Spinel was shifting nervously at the entrance of the room. That was when I decided to walk in.

"Almandine." Now that I turned the corner fully, I could see that she was not wearing her hood. Her face was far more terrifying than I had previously thought and it filled me with incredibly humbling fear. Her eyes widened and she pulled her hood over her face again. That was the first and last time I'd seen her face. I haven't remembered anything further yet, but I could tell. Despite her twisted expression, i might add, she looked incredibly beautiful. Like a rose, but every thorn a sword. I shook off the sheer mass of terror in my heart from looking at her like it were a blanket. "I need to know. What's going on. What were those monsters you had us fight? Why did they drop gems? Where are they no-"

"STOP!" Almandine slammed her fists on a desk in the middle of the room. "Enough… Kyanite. If you really want to know, I'll tell you, just… don't press the matter. Please. I'm already at my limit here." She visibly began to tremble. Spinel rounded on his heels and strode out of the room. Onyx backed up against a wall and leaned against it. The room fell silent, and for a moment it felt like we were falling through a void of time. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, each meaningless as it passed. After but a mere minute Almandine sighed and began, "Kyanite. Those creatures. They were gems, like you and me. The Diamond Authority are dealing with a civil war on some small, insignificant planet, but this war is far from insignificant. We've lost so many gems, on both fronts, already. The diamonds are getting worried, scared, and the people are becoming uneasy. With a war as large as this one is becoming they needed something to finish it off quickly. Something to maintain control, lest any other planets decide to revolt." Almandine turned abruptly. "I, however, fully agree with the rebellion's motives. Destroying a planet to grow more gems…" She paused and her face scrunched in disgust.

"Is sick. I also agree with the Diamond Authority in that they need to keep this revolution under control, lest other gem planets treat this like a chance for independence rather than planetary preservation. The thing I do not agree with is the endangerment of gem society as we speak. Not only are these rebels endangering gems that live on that insignificant little rock, but they are endangering those that live safely here! Now, the diamonds feel the need to take drastic measures! Do you know what they've gone and done?" Her voice was reaching dangerous levels of low and she was edging ever closer to me.

Even Onyx was looking slightly scared for my life. I could feel myself physically shrinking down under her towering form. "The Diamond Authority saw fit to create a weapon designed with the sole purpose of cracking and corrupting gems in a short period of time, essentially turning those caught in the blast into mindless beasts! It is a fate far worse than torture, and I should know. It used to be my job to dispatch of broken gems. Those few that you fought were simply experiments, mere prototypes of a much larger project. I don't enjoy knowing that those… things I was sent to get rid off will be allowed to, not only roam free, but willingly be created to end this war. It's a bad scene all around and no one will win when it's over. I just hope something can be done about it before…" She trailed off and all anger in her voice faded. She walked back over to her little dark red desk and hunched over, staring out the window. I was at a loss for words, both in the memory and out. I felt like this should have meant more to me than it did, but I couldn't place the nostalgia to a memory.

Onyx reached out and touched my arm. "Look. We have a lot to talk about. You, however, need to be… elsewhere. We'll catch you all up when we're done." Her face was stoic, but her words had a genuine feel behind them, if not awkward in their presentation. It was obvious she wasn't much of a talker. I nodded and turned, retreating from the room as quickly as I could. Once around the corner I stopped and backed into the wall, sliding down with an exasperated sigh. Never before had I felt so tired. I could feel my gem throbbing and brought a hand to it. In the midst of groaning and wallowing, I figured I needed to do something to get my mind back on track. I needed to focus on something, but no solace would be allowed of me that day. There was a light gasp. Soon there came another, followed by a shudder and what sounded like the beginnings of a sob. I looked up and vaguely searched for the source of the noise. The sounds resonated from the living room at the end of the hall I occupied. I rubbed my gem one final time before forcing myself up. I could process all of this information another time.

I crept silently up to a small chair and looked over as slowly as I could. Sitting, huddled with their head against their knees, was a short pink gem with wildly unkempt hair. She was sobbing vigorously now, I don't think she even noticed me walk up. At this point I knew my presence would go unnoticed so I moved in front of the chair. She slowly began to calm down as time stretched on, before breaking down all over again. This was making me uncomfortable. "H-hello? Are you alright?" The sudden greeting made her jump in her chair. She looked at me in a mix of disdain and shock. "You. You're the soldier who was assigned to us by the diamonds. What do you want?"

I was taken aback. Weren't they all assigned here by the diamonds? I couldn't be the only one. I paused and began, "I just came in and saw you, heard you rather, and I thought that maybe…" I trailed off, disheartened by her unchanged face. She looked flushed and frazzled still. Clearly whatever had upset her she planned on taking out on me. I could feel it building up inside of her. She stood up. Here it came. "Well, that's very observant of you. I guess I am kind of a mess right now. I could probably use the company, and everyone I would choose are all busy so you'll have to do for now." She smiled, her eyes more pink that they normally would have been and held out her hand to me. I didn't know what to do. I expected her to tear into me. I opened my mouth and closed it a number of times before she took it upon herself to clear the air.

"Oh don't give me that. Whoever you've had to deal with before is nothing like us. We're not mean here. No matter how much I want to hate you for where you came from I know that it wouldn't be right. As you can probably tell this whole ordeal with the civil war, the diamond authority, and their little monster creator has me very… unsettled. However, It would be wrong of me to take out my anger for them on you." She dusted herself of imaginary debris and again held out her hand. Her sunny attitude must have been contagious, because a smile crept on my face and I took her hand. "Great! Now, why don't i show you what we do for fun around here, especially when you live with a bunch of people who piss you off all the time!" Her sorrow from before seemed to evaporate almost immediately when she met me. I'd never felt more calm. Not around the diamonds, not during training, not around my allies or underlings in training, not here, not in combat, and definitely not alone.

We picked up our pace as she lead me through a number of winding corridors. All the while I tried to keep up with her as she rushed through the halls giggling, sending her phantom echoes down each aisle. "Just around this corner is the most relaxing place in this building! The best memories are had here!" When we turned the corner we entered a large featureless white box-like room with paneled walls and a sleek black floor. The pink gem who pulled me into the room let go and began stretching as she walked into the center of the room. "We call this the Box!" She shrugged and giggled. "I know, not very creative, but eh, whatya gonna do? We train in here all the time, or just settle petty squabbles. No one gets too severely hurt, and if they do we have a sick bay where we drop'em off! S'easy as that, y'see?"

She looked back at me, but I wasn't paying her any mind. The room was so entrancing in its seemingly endless size. "You don't talk much, do you?" I turned to look at her and was surprised to see she had summoned her weapon. When had she done that? What, did she mean to fight? Well, far be it from me to refuse, right? I summoned my own weapon in response. Her smile grew for a second and thinned, followed by her eyes. Her eyes narrowed and so too did her stance. Her sword was a long and thin pink rapier with a round guard that blocked her grip from sight. It would be near impossible to disarm. The tip of her blade curved sharply into a hook. Probably made specifically for disarming and preventing her from the same fate. She was a tactical fighter, I needed to be careful. It occurred to me then, as I rushed her, that while I had figured out her fighting style I did not yet have her name, nor did she have mine.

My two hammers felt light in my hands, held slack against my wrists, yet more natural than they had earlier in the memory. I wanted to see if she would fake out before I took this fight seriously. Something about her face told me not to hold back. Her piercing eyes never wavered as I closed the gap between us and she called my bluff with ease. I swung slowly with my right hammer, hoping she'd try to duck and open herself for a swift knee to the head. Maybe I'd have knocked her down, but nothing like this happened. She reacted quickly, almost too quick, twisting her blade around my palm and wrenching my hammer from my hand. In the same movement she brought back down the handle of her sword and slammed my knee back to the ground, throwing me off balance. Keeping her momentum going perfectly she turned around and brought her foot to my face. All of this was a beautiful display of skill and I knew that I could take this fight seriously. I assessed my situation: My hammer was flying just out of my reach, she was in no position to strike with her weapon, her foot was dangerously close to knocking me on my ass, but there was an opening. She was throwing her foot in a way that it would only land if I caught myself. The solution? Resigning myself to gravity. Once on the ground her foot flew aimlessly over my head, and now the scales were shifted in my favor.

Her foot sailed in the air behind me. With no chance of recovery, I pushed myself up and caught her leg with my shoulder, pushing her over like a sack. "Whoa!" She exclaimed. Clearly she expected me to be a little easier to beat than this. I didn't need my other hammer to finish her off. The spike at the end of my hammer was good enough to hold her up from the floor by her thin neck. "Wow. They taught you well at the diamond's little training camp. I'm impressed." She panted. I squinted, "Top of my class. No one could beat me." She laughed and fell to the ground as I removed my hammer and turned to distance myself. "I get it. You're a mindless drone, but you aren't stupid." The sting in her words burned my skin until I flushed in the face. I glared at her over my shoulder. I stopped. Now she had done it. I turned sharply and faced her again. She was barely on her feet before I charged her again, this time with my hammers fused into a long war hammer. Seeing this change in attitude snapped her back into action. My hammer flew down with intense force and she barely was able to push herself up and back flip away. The impact sent shock waves throughout the entire room. She visibly winced at the strike. "You didn't actually try to hit me with that, right?" I grinned, "Let's hope I don't, yeah?" She swallowed hard.

My next charge had me break my hammer again into two. She looked far more dangerous now, but then she also looked horribly terrified. I could only guess as to what I might have looked like to her. My swings were fast and reckless when I closed the distance, but they were also precise and strong. She dodged each one, not even trying to parry, counter, or disarm me again. If any of these strikes landed that would have been the end of her. The power behind each swing felt tremendous to me and I wasn't even really there. She finally made a mistake after minutes of swinging. She reached the wall, bumped into it, and instinctively cracked her sword against one of my hammers. Granted, she altered the strike and got the opportunity to duck. This duck however left her wide open for a downward attack and that was exactly what I intended to do. I turned with my last swing so I not only kept my momentum but increased it, and swung down only to find her not there anymore. I hear light feet steps behind me, but the force from my strike prevented me from reversing my attack. Then, everything went black for a moment. I was left to my thoughts as I was reforming and all I came up with was, "What was her name?"

The time it took me to reform was short, as always, but it felt hollow this time. I felt like I'd missed something important. I was still in the room, the damage I had done before was all fixed, and my gem was fine. What was wrong? I searched the chamber and realized that the pink gem was gone. Frantically I looked around, but saw her nowhere. "Hey!" I turned and saw a part of the wall open up. The pink gem walked in, strode over to me, and sat down. "Welcome back to the world of the living. You're quite the fighter, but you're definitely not unbeatable." I looked blankly at the ceiling, "I've never dealt with someone who can teleport. I'll be ready for it next time."

She laughed shortly before trailing off and frowning at the ground. "You know. I knew a gem who thought just like you. She was reckless, headstrong, but she had way more free will than you could ever hope to have." She let her head sink down onto her arm and stared wistfully towards the other side of the room. There was a prevalent silence that filled the air. I had become used to it by now. "My name is Kunzite, by the way. Kunzite. Not sure I told you before, but now I have." She turned to look at me. I didn't return the favor. "What's yours, then?" I squinted at the other wall, and my face softened. "Kyanite." After another silence, I looked at her, "How did you do that? How did you set up that attack after getting staggered? You had so little time to react and yet… you did." She smiled, "Well. I took a page out of your own book there. Sometimes you just need to go offensive, y'know? You can't always hope to rely on your wits and fancy techniques, can you? Sometimes you just need to rush and gun it. You just need to be in the right position to do so. You weren't, and I was." My eyes thinned. "The right position..." I whispered.

My composure fixed itself. I straightened my back, stopped crying, and took a deep breath of the sea air. Kunzite. With each thought of her my chest grew tighter and my breath caught. She was important. Very important. We became incredibly close after that, and she helped me in ways I couldn't even come close to comprehend.

The next few memories were a blur, a mish-mash of chater and skirmishes. I recall hearing Almandine's voice and the voice of one of the diamonds, although I didn't know which. I soon found out that it was the diamond in control of the army. I don't know what we talked about, but the next point at which my memories were clear I was standing in front of a field of gems, each brandishing a weapon, wearing armor, and staring at me intently. I didn't know what was going on, personally, but apparently the me in my memory did. I raised my warhammer high, just now did I notice that I was wearing armor myself. "Today we fight to put an end to this fighting! We are not here to kill, but to resolve the differences between us! I have talked to the war general, Brown Diamond! The plan is simple: Get me to Rose Quartz and kill as few as possible! There is hope for this day and this war to end with no more death so long as we just get to her!" I turned and held my hammer to my chest. The hill we stood behind was large enough to hide us from sight, but still allowed me a perfect view of the encampment below. I could see clearly where the rebellion hid. This plan had to work. I could feel it. "ATTACK!"

The rush I felt as I pushed past each of the rebellion's warriors. Beside me I could see my own allies fending off blow after blow, each meant for me. My own hammers felt particularly light in my hands, but I held them tightly. A large purple gem stood in front of me and I jumped towards her. She swung a large black handled axe at me, but before it made contact, sand and dirt began to encompass me. The earth pushed me over her head and in turn pushed her back, knocking her over. I could see Rose Quartz's portion of the field and felt a surge of energy. I gripped my hammers and swung with purpose, deflecting attack after attack, volleys of arrows, tips of spears and swords, hammers and axes. I took no risks, struck no one, made no chance for counter attack. I simply bolted for Rose Quartz, until finally she was in my sight.

Her eyes hardened and around her stood two gems. One tall with a literally black block of hair, Garnet, from when I reformed, and the other, slender with a pointed nose, Pearl. They hadn't noticed me, caught up in their own frantic conversation. They were focused on the surprise attack. I looked back and saw their forces pushing mine back, I didn't have much time before my forces retreated entirely. "ROSE QUARTZ!" Her eyes sharply pointed at me and she summoned a shield and drew her sword. Garnet and Pearl quickly summoned their own weapons as well. I dispelled my hammers in hopes to gain a minute or two.

"Rose!" I called up, "I'm here to tal-" There was a loud crash and I turned. A large green ray of energy coursed over the landscape, pouring over the field with a sickly green hue. The diamond's army had long since retreated and now I was left with Rose's rebellion, caught in the blast. Every gem who was hit let out a terrified cry and slowly morphed into something akin to the monsters I'd fought before. The green ray swept over the field and headed for where we were now. Rose summoned a large bubble around herself and the other two, leaving me and the rest of the gems for dead. "This wasn't the pan! This wasn't meant to happen! We had a deal!" My last words echoed in my head, and I realized that my last memories before I changed myself were of Kunzite.

We were standing in the box again, talking instead of fighting this time. "That was great! We did it perfectly that time! I didn't think it would work at the rate we were going, but it finally worked! Kyanite aren't you- Kyanite?" I was staring at the ground. She walked over to my side and placed a slender hand on my shoulder. "Kyanite, what's wrong? You can tell me, you know?" After all we'd been through, I guess I took her word for it. In retrospect I probably shouldn't have. "Kunzite, I… I made a plan. I talked to the diamonds and we made a deal that if I can get Rose Quartzs to back off her assualt on homeworld gems they'll leave Earth. For once in my life I don't feel like violence is the answer. For once in my life I feel like I've made a choice, and I'm choosing to go to Earth. I don't want anymore gems to die. You guys helped me see what was going on. You guys changed me. Now it's time i returned the favor." Kunzite let go of my shoulder and backed away slowly, shaking her head. "No. Kyanite, no. You can't… You don't just…" She turned and ran off, out of the room, closing the door behind her. I held out my arm, but couldn't bring myself to run after her. "Maybe we can become Morganite some other time. I have something I need to do first. I'll be back, Kunzite. I promise."

My body shook and I opened my eyes. I knew who I was, I knew what happened, and i knew whose side I was on. Homeworld was dead to me, save for one gem who I needed to return to. There was just no way for it to work. Suddenly I heard soft foot steps behind me. I turned slowly to see Steven walking up to me. He took a seat right next to me on the sand. "So, you like to sit and brood, huh? I think you'd get along with Ronaldo pretty well, though he likes to go on the cliffside for his brooding." He craned his head to look at my face as I was now staring at the sand. "You okay? You just… walked off after that like it was nothing. I hope Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl didn't scare you off. You seem like you'd be pretty fun to have as a friend." I laughed, "No. They didn't scare me off. I just… might need to talk to them at some point. Where are they?" Steven scratched his head, "Well, after Garnet punched you through the house it kind of fell down, so now they're rebuilding it. They didn't want me getting hurt so they told me to go somewhere safer. So I came here!" I stretched and stood up. "Safer, huh? You chose me for that." He made like he wanted to say something but didn't. The sun was at it's peak and the day was still young. "Well, Steven, I'm done with what I was doing." I wiped tear residue off of my cheeks and ruffled his hair, "What do you do for fun around here?" I'd never seen another person smile so widely since Kunzite. "Weeeeell, I guess I could show you a thing or two!"

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**Thank you for reading! I haven't written in a decently long time, but i feel like i'm getting used to it again. Please review if you can, I thrive on reviews. They are my blood. :D**

**P.S. Editing still sucks.**


	4. New Experiences (cut-off chapter)

**I want to say, beforehand, that this took WAAAAAAAAAY longer than it should have. Like... this was supposed to tak maybe 2-3 days, but it took more like 5-7. I'm a little upset that my depression got the better of me, but IMUSCLED through it. I want to thank everyone who reads this, and say that the cut chapter means it's supposedto be an interaction episode. Nothing super heavy is supposed to happen, but it progresses the story a little while still being relatively simple. Least, I hope that's how it comes off. Enjoy!**

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Steven tugged on Kyanite's arm eagerly, pulling him away from the beach and into beach city. They started at the end of the beach closest to the right of his house, which had a building with a large donut on top. "This is the Big Donut! I come here all the time and their donuts are amazing! Then there's Sadie and Lars who both work here! Sadie is super nice and sometimes she sneaks an extra donut into my bag. She doesn't have to, but she's super nice like that! And then there's Lars. He's pretty awesome and we share a really deep and mysterious bond. I don't expect you to understand but it's there." Steven rambled on and on about what kind of donuts were his favorite as they entered the building. Sadie was working the counter, as usual, while Lars was working on a new batch of coffee in the coffee maker. Kyanite followed, but hesitated when he saw the wide array of round, sprinkled pastries on display. He had no idea what was going on or what Steven was talking about, but he had a feeling he was about to learn in full and fast. "Steven,SLOW down. I've never had a… donut before. I don't even know what they are or what you do with them!"

Steven stopped hard and gasped. "THAT'S RIGHT! YOU'VE NEVER HAD ONE BEFORE!" He pointed at Sadie before she could even register his presence and say hi, "SADIE!" The short blonde jumped in place and let out a shrill "eep". "WE NEED A CHOCOLATE CINNAMON SWIRL, STAT!" Steven rushed the counter and, with urgency in his voice, cried, "I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH TIME HE HAS LEFT!" Kyanite began to panic. Was he in trouble? Were these "donuts" integral for his survival? He had no clue what was going on and the short blond named Sadie was laughing like it was nothing! "Calm down, Steven. You're scaring your friend." She smiled up at Kyanite and tried to soothe him as she bagged two donuts. "Hi, I'm Sadie. That's Lars over there. We keep the place together, but today's been prettySLOW. Here's your donuts Steven." She passed the bag over to the child and he tossedMONEY up onto the counter in return. He then began to fumble with the bag, nearly dropping it several times. "You're new to Beach City, aren't you? I don't recall seeing you here before." Kyanite looked up from Steven, worry clearly still in his eyes, "Ah, no. This is my first time here, I guess. I mean, I suppose I've been here all along, but this is the most alive I've been in thousands of YEARGF!" "ENOUGH TALKING! TRY THIS!"

Steven shoved the chocolate covered donut into his tall friend's mouth hastily. "Well? D'you like it?" Sadie looked shocked, "STEVEN! What'd you do that for!?" SheCONTINUED to scold him for a couple minutes as Steven tried to defend his case. However all of the noise was lost to Kyanite as a world unknown to him graced his lips. The chocolate cinnamon swirl donut assaulted his mind with an onslaught of creamy and chocolatey goodness, as the cinnamon left a mysterious spice on the tip of his tongue. He felt as though her were in heaven with each chew bringing him closer and closer to Nirvana. Kyanite's eyes closed as he was blissfully transported to another world of magic beyond his wildest dreams.

"H-hey, uh… s'your friend alright, Steven?" Lars waved his hand in from of the gem's face. Kyanite slowly opened his eyes, glazed over and unfocused. Steven smiled wider than he ever had before and stars formed in his eyes. "You liked it!" He cheered. Sadie chuckled to herself, "I take that look as an indication you're probably going to buy another one." Steven nodded quickly as Sadie bagged another donut for him. Kyanite was still lost in the flavors from the first donut and hadn't even processed that there was still a conversation going on. Sadie started to look a little worried, "Steven your friend hasn't said anything in about five minutes. I don't even think he's breathed at all, either." Lars huffed and walked into the back rooms. Steven just laughed and slapped Kyanite on the back, "He's fine! He doesn't even need to breathe anyway! That was just his first donut so it's pretty understandable. I'm gonna go show him the arcade now!" Steven grabbed Kyanite's arm and ran out of the donut shop with the taller gem in tow, leaving the dumbfounded blond behind. Sadie shook her head slowly, "Doesn't… need to… breath?" She sighed and propped her head up with her hand. "That kid is going to hurt someone some day." Lars looked around the corner and snidely remarked, "Maybe if we're lucky it'll be himself." His nasally laugh filled the shop and drowned out Sadie's reprimanding.

By the time the two gems made it down to the Funland Arcade Kyanite was returning to his senses. Steven lead them up to an arcade system named "Jump Guy". "I love this one! It's so simple and yet fun." Steven said as sophisticated as he could manage. Kyanite shook his head as he fell from his sugar high. "W-what?" He stuttered. He looked around in a dazed fashion, taking in his new surroundings. "Where are we now, Steven?" Steven looked up at Kyanite with stars in his eyes. "We're at the Funland Arcade! This place has a bunch of awesome games! Like this one!" He pointed to the game called "Jump Guy" again. Steven pushed Kyanite in front of the controls and began to ecstatically explain the rules. "All you gotta do is get your man to jump over the bullets those cowboy guys are firing at you! Then you can fire back at them when it's your turn! Simple!" Kyanite looked at the joystick and the buttons at his disposal. For something that looked so old and simple it sure seemed to be more complicated than what it was worth. However, he'd have hated to disappoint the little guy. "Alright, I guess I'll try it out. What do these buttons do? And what's this lever?"

Steven explained the rules over and over and over again for the next thirty minutes as Kyanite struggled to keep up with all of the mayhem on the screen and his words. Eventually, it got to the point where all of the information became too much and he gave in. "Alright! That's enough of that!" He said, loudly, as though he needed to make his point as clear as possible. Steven looked downcast. "Awww, but you were finally starting to get the hang of it!" Kyanite turned away from the machine and said, "Yeah, but if I stay here and play any longer I may lose my mind and smash things. Violently." Steven and Kyanite held a moment of silence between each other. "I guess we should do something else then. OH, I KNOW! If you liked donuts you'll love fry bits! Come on, let's go over to Beach Citywalk Fries! Peedee will hook us up with the best fry bits you'll ever have!" Kyanite cocked his head, "But I've never even had fry bits before." He paused. "Are they anything like donuts?" Eagerness filled his voice. Steven scratched his head. "Well... not really. Donuts are sweet and fry bits are more... salty than anything. But they're awesome anyway! I know you'll love them!" Kyanite shrugged and said, "anything's better than being here right now." With that, Steven grabbed his hand and took off down the boardwalk. He was really rather spritely for such a stout kid.

Steven led the pair to the Fryman's place of business. As they neared, a greasy smell began to fill the air. "Steven, what are fries exactly?" Steven didn't skip a beat nor did he slow down, "Fries are awesome." He stopped there and Kyanite looked ahead to the building they were approaching. The smell had become surrounding, but not altogether overwhelming. The greasiness melded with the salty sea air wonderfully. "PEEDEE!" Steven exclaimed in excitement. There was a young human, probably the same age as Steven at the counter. The blond child looked up from gazing out at the beach and smiled at Steven. "Yo, Steven. Let me guess, fry bits?" Steven smiled with that all too familiar wideness, "You know it, Peedee!" Kyanite stood in silence behind Steven as this child, Peedee, went in the back of the building and got came back with what looked like bits and pieces of over oiled and burnt leather. Steven paid for these "fry bits" and held them up to Kyanite's nose. The smell was nothing like anything he smelled on the way here. The bits were a little burnt and very greasy, giving off a kind of sickly and sour smell. Nevertheless he picked up a piece of fry and reluctantly plopped it into his mouth.

The taste was rather unpleasant and, frankly too salty. He didn't really enjoy it, not as much as the donuts, but they weren't wholly repulsive. Kyanite handed the fry bits back to Steven and looked up to Peedee again. He seemed lost in the beach again. "So, new faces don't really catch you off, do they?" Peedee barely glanced up at him. "I've worked long enough to know not to ask too many questions about my patrons. I find you get better reception that way. That, and things are just generally easier if you just sit and take orders." Kyanite was shaken by the apathetic response. A pang of guilt passed through him as he recalled his own life on homeworld. "You know. You kind of remind me of someone, myself to be exact." Peedee looked up at Kyanite out of the corner of his eyes. Kyanite in turn looked out onto the beach, staring at the waves as they washed up and pulled away. "But then that's not really a good thing, is it?" Peedee sighed and looked back at the beach. All the while Steven seemed to be blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place. "well, I guess it's time to go for me." Kyanite stretched and looked down at the shorter gem, "Steven, where are we going next?" Steven looked up and hummed as he kept dropping more fry bits into his mouth. "Well, the sun is getting ready to go down soon, so let's go to some of the rides at Funland while we still can!"

Kyanite resigned to Steven's pulling. Any place with a name like "Funland" had to be a nice place to go to. The sun was about halfway towards setting. Beach city looked wonderful at this time of day. Streaks of red and orange covered each house and street with an unnaturally warm glow. It felt like home, more home than homeworld to be honest. They neared a part of the boardwalk where large machines were spread out surrounded by humans and shacks selling varying items. It was all kind of overwhelming and he was glad Steven was guiding him through it all. Steven seemed determined and pushed through groups of teens and children to make his way to a specific ride. When they finally stopped they stood in front of an arch that read "Tea Cups". It looked innocent enough, albeit a bit extravagant for such a simple concept, yet when he looked down at steven his face was ellated. He shrugged and followed Steven into the line to board a cup. The wait was not as long as he thought it looked and they were in their seats after about ten minutes. The ride was, as he thought, very simple. They spun around in a tea large metal tea cup as these tea cups rotated around a giant tea pot. It didn't feel very exhilarating given that he could move faster than these tea cups on a bad day, but Steven was enjoying himself so Kyanite kept his reticence to himself.

After an all too short period of time the ride crept to a halt and they were guided off. Kyanite strode away from the cup unphased, but Steven stumbled about in a giggly haze of mirth. By this time the sun was nearly starting to set. Between fits of giggles and pants Steven forced out one last idea, "Heheh, hey, kyanite! We-heehee should go to the docks! The sunset looks awesome from there!" kyanite looked at the sun through a hand and grinned, now he was talking. This view was awesome just from where they stood, even with buildings in their way for the most part. Steven let go of Kyanite's hand and took up aSLOW stroll to the docks. This was quite the mix-up from his regular hyperactivity. The walk was beautiful with the sun's setting light sweeping over the town. They began to near a part of the boardwalk that stretched out over the water and was surrounded by boats. This was clearly the dock, but all the ships blocked the view. Kyanite was a little thrown off. "What's so special about- oh." Steven lead them to an empty stretch of dock that pointed straight toward the setting sun. The view was truly magnificent and Kyanite found himself sitting down almost against his will to watch it go down, slowly and gracefully. "Yeah, the view is awesome, just like I said." Silence filled the air. They sat and watched as the sun kissed the ocean and was enveloped in the cold deep. The quiet calm was broken as Steven yawned, "I used to come here with my dad and the gems all the time when I was younger. I don't know why we stopped, but I guess they just got more busy, especially lately what with those two homeworld gems attacking us. Things just seemed to become more difficult as I grew up." Steven's regular smile was replaced by an uncharacteristically forlorn frown. He stared into the water and then looked up to Kyanite, "It's nice to be able to come here with someone again!" Kyanite wanted so badly to ask about the two gems that attacked, but he didn't have the heart to ruin this moment for him. Instead he thought of something awesome, himself.

"Hey, Steven?" The child looked back again, for he had started to look at the appearing stars. "You want to do something awesome before we head back?" Steven was feeling tired, but he nodded anyway. Anything that Kyanite said was awesome must have been super awesome. Steven watched as the taller gem stood up and pulled a warhammer from his gem. At this point all Steven could think of was how the crystal gems would be freaking out had they been here to witness this. Kyanite smiled down at the gem and did the unthinkable. He dropped the hammer into the ocean. Steven stared over the dock's edge and before his eyes the water thickly froze over. Steven was hesitant to get on the ice, even though it stretched on for about 50 ft away from the dock. Ships creaked against the ice and were locked into place and Steven's mouth went slack as stars formed in his eyes. "WHOOOOAAAA!" Kyanite smiled and jumped on the ice, gliding around effortlessly. "Come on, Steven. We might as well enjoy ourselves. Just think of this as me returning the favor for the great day." Steven jumped onto the ice and flailed helplessly for a bit until he finally caught himself. "This… This is AWESOME!" He cheered.

Hours seemed to pass endlessly as the night stretched on. Kyanite soon found he could freeze the ocean mist and create salty snow for snow ball fights. The fun they had went on for an indefinite amount of time, until Steven could finally take no more. He began to yawn more andSLOW down in his movements, as well as nodding and slipping more frequently. Kyanite became worried. This wasn't normal for gems. He needed to take Steven back to the Crystal Gems. They'd know what to do. "Steven? Don't worry, I'll get you back home. The gems'll know what to do!" Worry was evident in his voice, but Steven just chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm just tired. I'm going to sleep. I'll be fiiiiiii-" He cut off as he finally blacked out and drifted off into a heavy slumber. Kyanite held out his arm over the ice once he got back onto the doc and the ice quickly melted away into a thick mist, climbing his arm and fusing into his gem. At this dark hour he found the town to be completely dark and silent. Only street lights and the occasional lit window gave signs of human presence. It felt both eerie and calming, like a long forgotten battlefield. Kyanite shook his head of such morbid thoughts. Now wasn't the time, and he hoped there would never be another time where he remembered things like that again. The beach was empty and cold, but the sounds of rushing waves retained a calm feeling in the air. As he neared the beach house he picked up his pace, eager to drop off Steven and ask some questions of the Crystal Gems while he was at it.

The house was fixed up by the they returned. He pushed open the door to come face to face with pearl, "OH NO, STEVEN!" She forcefully wrenched the young gem from Kyanite's arms and growled at him, "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Kyanite held up his hands, but before he could defend himself a voice resonated from further in the house, "He's sleeping Pearl, calm down. Welcome back Kyanite. I trust you had an eventful day?" Garnet walked up to him as pearl took Steven up to his bed. Kyanite stepped through the threshold and walked past garnet. There was an overwhelming feeling of hostility in the air. Garnet kept the door open as she watched him walk past her, Pearl looked over the railing from Steven's room, staring daggers at him. Even Amethyst, who was previously "sleeping", was paying full attention to the scene at hand. Kyanite sat at the warp point and folded his hands in front of him, "I have a couple questions, and, while you don't have to answer, answers would greatly appreciated." He tried to sound as sincere as possible. Pearl was the first to respond, and did so vigorously, "WE don't have to tell YOU anything! You tried to kill us! Twice! Why should we-" "Wait." Garnet stopped her and held up her hand. "You were there. At the war. I remember, just before that…" She stopped. "You were there. You fought in the war, but not to kill. I can respect that, but what gets me is that you spent all day with Steven and did not lay a finger on him. I'll answer your questions, so long as they are brief." Kyanite took a deep breath and felt a weight release from his chest he hadn't realized was there.

"First off. Thank you." Garnet nodded and PearlAUDIBLY huffed, turning up her nose. "Aww, lighten up, P!" Amethyst spoke up. "Second, tell me about the gems who attacked. Who were they? What did they want?" Garnet shifted, slightly, but noticeably to the trained eye. 'This is a touchy subject, huh?' He thought. Garnet looked up at Pearl, who now had her forehead resting on her hands and her elbows propped up against the railing. Amethyst was wringing her wrists. "They were two gems from homeworld, come to rebuild the Kindergarten and fix the homeworld access warp. They also came with a gem who was previously trapped here on Earth that we didn't know of until Steven released her. We had to ensure they could do neither. However, when they confronted us, we nearly stood no match. If not for Steven being immune to their gem destabilizers and Lapis, the gem who was trapped here, fusing with one of them and trapping them beneath the sea we would have all been done for." Kyanite thought long and hard about the implications. Homeworld not only destroyed the rebellion with that blast, but now they wanted to go back to destroying the planet. Why wait so long? He needed to know more, but he feared the gems were just as clueless as he was. He sighed, "You know they're going to send more gems, right?" Garnet didn't respond. Instead she adjusted her shades. Amethyst growled, "What's it matter!? We took the last gem goons who came, we'll take the next ones down, too, right?" She sounded so confident, but it was very clearly an attempt to boost spirits. Rather weak as well, given that Garnet looked away and Pearl dropped her downcast look onto Amethyst. Amethyst herself looked from Garnet to Pearl and repeated, "Right!?" Her voice cracked. "Right!" The three crystal gems turned in surprise to see Kyanite standing up with his hammer drawn. He walked over to Garnet and knelt down, "I owe Steven my life, twice over. I will fight alongside you, whenever you need me to! No matter the risk! The homeworld betrayed you and I once before, but they will not take this planet so long as our gems are intact!" Garnet adjusted her shades once more, Amethyst jumped up and whooped, and Pearl cracked a hopeful smile. "Maybe there is a little hope for a better future?" Pearl sounded like she was asking it, rather than saying it.


	5. Reunion

**THIS. TOOK. WAAAAAAAAAY longer than it should have. And to top it off, I can't even get the stupid paragraphs to indent properly anymore! So! I'm done! I just wanted this to be a pretty short chapter and it's already, like, one of the longest I'd written. Like damn. To make matters even worse, I had my worst case of writer's block ever! At least, my worst case of creative writer's block. I couldn't write anything for school or business even if it could save my life. well, either way, I'm happy I finished this at all. Please read and review! I thrive on reviews. The constructive criticism and positive/negative feedback keeps my mind fresh and makes me aware that at least someone likes what they read or at the very least went, "Oh. Alright. This is a thing." But I digress, please enjoy chapter 5 of Renegade!**

**One last thing, actually. I feel the need to clarify that last chapter, while it is titled a cut-off chapter, it is still entirely part of the story. I have a motif going on about the chapters, I'm sure you've noticed. The main story are the chapters titled by "R" words. The cut-off chapters, while still part of the story, go about more... mundane parts of the story. They still happen, but they're more like little breaks or small things that happened and you should make note of. Nothing major, but they exist. Anyway, I digress. There are also cases where cut-off chapters will take place in completely separate fan fictions as one shots. These will be rare, but worth it in my eyes. Anyway, Carry on with the chapter, I'll not hold you much longer.**

* * *

The days passed easily after that. Kyanite began to pass the time with Steven, keeping him company most days and leaving to wander beach city most nights. Garnet kept searching the ocean for signs of Malachite and some days Pearl searched nearby areas for Peridot. Amethyst spent a lot of time with Steven and Kyanite during the days and walked with Kyanite during the nights, often indulging in some of the night time fair. Sometimes they'd go to one of Sour Cream's hidden raves and other times they'd indulge in a few food places just before they closed. The days passed easily.

After a few weeks of living with the gems Kyanite was finally starting to feel welcomed in the temple. He also found it ironic that the Beach City residents had become more friendly to him before the gems had, but he shrugged off any negativity he might have had. His time alone was really the time he relished, though. He took these rare moments to hone his own capabilities, learning new techniques, new ways to manipulate his abilities, and trying to control the overpowering anger raging in his gem.

He made sure he was alone during these times, because there were always those days when the rage took over and he had to pull himself out of its grasp. Those were the days he hated more than anything and they were surprisingly prevalent. However, he was learning more and more about himself and his powers. He was capable of freezing the water in the air to make dense walls of ice just by swinging his hammers. He could throw his hammers and, on impact, have them burst into sharp icicles. The new found freedom allowed his mind to wander and imagine even more fascinating combinations of his abilities. He was becoming more and more impressed. If any Homeworld gem attacked now, Kyanite would be ready to protect anyone.

There was one thing that constantly bothered him, however. With his new freedom he could easily wander his memories and access knowledge of his time on Homeworld, but there was something blocking certain memories. He'd either remember them fuzzy or entirely have them blacked out. Nothing the Crystal gems could do remedied the situation, but as his memories were of before the war they were deemed frivolous and unnecessary. He was in no position to argue with them, but it bothered him nonetheless.

* * *

Another week was over and lead into a new one. The monday started off quietly, as the gems were out. Steven yawned and woke up to see Kyanite playing a game on his TV. Steven smiled and crawled out of bed to take the second controller. It didn't take long for Kyanite to set up the game for Steven to play. "Good morning, Steven." Steven yawned once more, "Good morning, Kyanite." They played for about an hour until a low grumble broke their focus on the game. "Oh, right! I haven't had breakfast yet!" Steven rolled over Kyanite, who was laying down now, and walked down the stairs. He had yet to put on a shirt and was simply wearing pajama pants. Kyanite could hear Steven clattering around in the kitchen, opening and closing cabinet doors and the door to the fridge. He payed it no mind and kept playing. "What should I eat today?" Steven mused. The question hung in the air for a minute before Kyanite answered him, "Waffles." Steven jumped at the idea, "YEAH! WE COULD SHARE THEM!"

Kyanite had taken to eating as Amethyst had. He also had to be made aware of the… bodily consequences, but they were of little importance to him. He enjoyed sampling Earth food along with Steven. The experience was interesting. Although, he didn't take to it with as much gusto as Amethyst. Steven began to work on the waffles immediately when suddenly the Crystal gems transported on the warp pad and rushed for the door. Kyanite paused the game and jumped over the railing.

"Whoa! What's the problem!?" Pearl turned quickly and said, "We just saw something crash down nearby! We need to figure out how we're going to get over to the place and fast! There's no telling what it could be, especially now that Homeworld knows we're-" "There's no time to waste! Kyanite, we're going to go investigate, you stay here with Steven and keep him safe! We'll be back soon." With Garnet's interruption out of the way she walked over to Steven and kissed him on the forehead.

"Be safe, Steven." She and Amethyst ran back outside. Pearl held back to talk to Steven, "Okay, we'll be fine. We're not going to engage them if they are gems, so stay here and be safe. We're just investigating. Everything is going to be fine." Steven's face creased with worry, but only because her words felt more for her own sake than his. "Pearl, I know you guys will be fine! You know what to watch out for! You guys can do this!" She seemed to physically relax from hearing his words. Pearl stood, turned, and followed the other two.

Steven looked worried. "It's probably nothing." Kyanite said. In all honesty, he wasn't too sure, but with their luck the chances that this was another attack were high. "It's not nothing. It's never nothing! We need to go and help them! Last time they fought Homeworld gems they needed me! They're going to need me again…" Steven pleaded Kyanite. "Take me to them! We need to help them!" Guilt pressed at Kyanite's chest and his voice caught in his throat. No matter how hard he wanted to protest, he couldn't find any words to justify not helping them. "Steven, we don't even know where they are! We have no chance of finding them!" Steven smiled.

"Yes we do!" He ran to his room, pulled on a red shirt with a yellow star and a pair of jeans, and tumbled back down the stairs. "Trust me! We'll find them, easy!" Kyanite was starting to get worried and stopped him at the door, "Even so Steven, we don't know if some Homeworld gems might be coming here! We have to protect the temple as well!" Steven couldn't believe his ears and frankly Kyanite didn't believe his own words himself. "That's all the more reason to go! Strength in numbers! Jeez, it's like I'm the only strategist we have sometimes!" Steven threw his hands up in the air and ran out the door. He stopped once outside and ran back in, "I kind of need you to take me there. I don't move as fast as you guys do." Kyanite sighed at the fact he was letting himself get dragged along with Steven's wacky plan. "Alright," He started. "Get on my back. We'll get there. Somehow." Steven smiled and climbed onto Kyanite's shoulders. "Have no fear, dear friend, for we have the power of SUPERVISION ON OUR SIDE! ONWARD!" Steven pointed in a seemingly random direction and Kyanite sprinted for it.

* * *

"Garnet! There's smoke coming from over here!" Amethyst yelled through thick foliage. They were in a forest, of sorts, not far from Beach City. It was already unnerving enough watching the object plummet from the sky, but now that they knew it landed near Beach City their fears were all but confirmed. Garnet pushed past a few bushes and held up her hand to indicate silence. Nothing moved inside of the plume of smoke as it billowed high into the sky. It lie in a clearing of grass and wildflowers, in a crater of upturned dirt. All was silent save for the rare tweeting of birds and the sound of creaking wood from fallen trees.

Suddenly, a metallic groan resounded through the air. A metal door forced itself open through the smoke. A pained groan came from inside of the plume and out flopped a short woman with pale green skin and multicolored hair. "Ugh…" She moaned. "That was a horrible landing. Who was in charge of reentry?" A voice from inside calming answered, "That would be me. I'm sorry, but I wasn't prepared for any turbulence we might have encountered. Maybe you should return to your gem for the time being to recuperate." The woman laughed, "Spinel, I'll be fine." Pearl twitched when she heard the name Spinel. "What did she say?" She whispered to Garnet. Garnet, in turn, hushed her and listened intently. "We made it, and that's all that matters! It's kind of exhilarating coming back after all these years! I wonder if any other gems are here. Maybe some from the kindergarten stayed back!" Amethyst gripped her whip. She hadn't even realized she summoned her weapon but she had. "Garnet?" Pearl whispered. Garnet held up her hand again.

The gem that she was talking to walked out of the plume and looked around. He looked male and was a hot pink gem with a tall, athletic build. His attention was altered as other gems followed him out of the smoke. A short but large purple gem, Beryl, a lithe and tall pale gem with black hair, Onyx, and a thin pink gem with wild hair, Kunzite. "We made it, yes, but what do we do now? Our goal was to retreat to Earth. What is our mission now that we're here?" Onyx sounded distraught. "Our mission. You make it sound so formal. It's not like we had any other choice. We needed an escape. Especially after we got caught. This will do fine." Beryl broke her speech into short sentences and backed them with a monotonous tone that somehow seemed motherly. "Maybe they aren't here for Jasper and Peridot?" Pearl shifted behind the bushes and Beryl Looked directly at the bushes.

She looked at Spinel, who was looked at the bush as well, and nodded, "We have company." Garnet tensed and said, "Maybe we shouldn't take those kind of chances. Now." The pale green gem giggled, "what do you me-" She was cut off as a bright white spear flew and caught her in the stomach. She crumpled to the ground and her words soundlessly cut off. She looked up to beryl in a mix of shock and disbelief. After a pause she returned to her gem, a small gem that held an infinite number of colors. Beryl yelled, "TOURMALINE!" She glared at the bush with fury as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl jumped out and rushed them. "This was an ambush!? Did they get here before us!?" Spinel looked in awe for a split second before pulling a rod of light from his gem on the back of his neck. He swung the rod out and it elongated into the form of his spear.

Garnet rushed the large purple gem, only to get intercepted midway by Onyx, who was now wielding a scythe. She grabbed the scythe blade and flung her overhead towards Pearl, who went for a finishing strike. The pale gem twisted in the air to dodge it and counter attacked. Pearle turned in haste and blocked the strike, glaring into Onyx's eyes. "What are you doing here!? What's your purpose!?" Pearl interrogated her, but her answer really answered nothing at all, "We could ask you the same thing! We were under the impression there were no more gems on this planet!" Pearl squinted at her opponent and pushed away from her.

"Watch out Pearl!" Yelled Amethyst as she wrapped her whip around Kunzite, who was attempting a sneak attack. In the same movement, she pulled the pink gem into her own assailant. Spinel grabbed onto Kunzite and skidded into a tree, but he didn't lose balance. Instead he threw the pink gem towards Amethyst like a gem missile. Kunzite swiped at the shorter gem with her sword, barely missing her attack and rolled on the ground to gain a little distance and dodge a counter attack. Spinel on the other hand followed up by trying to throw his spear as well, only to have the tip be grabbed by a gauntlet clad fist and yanked to the side. Spinel instinctively let go of his weapon and took on a boxer's stance. Red armored gloves formed on his hands and he engaged Garnet again.

As the fight erupted all over the field, Beryl stood down and took Tourmaline's gem into her hand, almost cradling it like an infant. Her face twisted in burning anger and she turned to look over the field. Beryl held her hand over the grass and moved her fingers slowly. With each minor movement the Earth shook and rivulets of dirt unloosened themselves, uprooting grass and flowers. Garnet was the first to notice, between dodging and throwing punches. "Amethyst! Look ahead and get ready!" Amethyst looked out of the corner of her eye from the pink gem she was currently fighting to see a large wave of soil forming and coming straight for them. Quickly she jumped away from Kunzite, pulled a second whip from her gem, and lashed furiously at the wave with burning strikes. The dirt blew up instantly, but flew out wildly and caught Pearl from behind, throwing her into Onyx. Anticipating her shift in balance, Onyx caught Pearl with the hooked blade of her scythe and pulled her through the air and into the ground. She let out a cry of pain as she slammed into the dirt and Amethyst looked past Kunzite with concern.

Amethyst ducked a sweeping attack from Kunzite and caught her in the stomach with her foot. As she was staggered Amethyst wrapped her whip around her. With a loud grunt, she pulled Kunzite into the air and launched her into Onyx before she could attack Pearl a second time. Onyx barely sidestepped her oncoming ally, but left herself open to Pearl, who pushed herself up and grabbed Onyx from behind. "Amethyst! Get ready!" Onyx tensed as she was lifted off of the ground and thrown through the air only to be lashed with Amethyst's whip and tugged back down to the Earth. "Yeah! How do YOU like it!?" Amethyst yelled mockingly.

Pearl turned to see Kunzite taking a defensive stance. Pearl smirked then looked grim as she drew her spear. "You have no range advantage." Kunzite grinned and eyed her surroundings as she replied, "I don't need any range advantage! I prefer to beat my enemies using tact, careful planning, and skill anyway!" Pearl looked slightly dumbfounded and smiled darkly as she readied herself for her new opponent. "Then you really have no advantage at all." Kunzite's smile faded before reforming, followed by a hysterically nervous giggle, "W-well, then this is when things start getting difficult!"

Kunzite sprinted toward Pearl with her sword aimed at an angle. Pearl stood still, glaring silently forward. "An attack from the side, easily deflected. Maybe a head on rush, but that'd be the worst choice you could make. Possibly going for one of my legs, which I can counterattack rather easily." Kunzite jumped back in shock at Pearl's words. Pearl grinned. "You were probably going to try to disarm me, as well." She scoffed when Kunzite tensed up. "Predictable." It was Pearl's turn to charge her opponent now. A flurry of blows rained down on Kunzite, and those she couldn't block she dodged. "You have speed, that's for sure, but what is speed worth when you can't take the chance to land an attack?" Pearl mocked. "Well, I don't really need to take the chance to land an attack! You've taken it for me!"

Pearl payed no mind to her words and knocked her arm loose with a strike from the butt of her spear. The immediate thrust that followed met thin air as the pink gem disappeared in front of her very eyes. A whizzing sounded from behind her as Kunzite appeared and swung for Pearl neck. Just barely did she duck and roll away from her impending doom. Kunzite's haughty smile returned to her face as she once again held the advantage in her fight. She disappeared once again and Pearl turned on her heel to meet her stomach with a swift kick. Kunzite grunted and fell to the ground, losing her grin once again. Pearl near laughed, and pointed her spear down to the staggered gem. "This isn't your fight to wi-UGH!" Her taunt was interrupted as a wave of dirt shifted under her and threw her into a tree.

Spinel was just barely keeping up with Garnet's ruthless onslaught, ducking punch after punch and throwing in safe jabs when he could, each one blocked. He saw his chance to shift the tide in his own favor, albeit throwing his ally under the bus in the process. He'd apologize for it later, "Kunzite! Let's go!" The pink gem looked up mid reprieve and saw Spinel kick off of one of the punches aimed for his gut. Kunzite took the opportunity to switch opponents gladly, jumping to her feet and taking Spinel's spot against Garnet. "Alright, let's try this again!" She said hesitantly. Once more she made a swipe with her sword only to have it get caught and pulled forward by a gauntlet-clad fist.

"Alright, Let's not!" She yelled in a hurry. Before another fist made contact with her head she disappeared and reappeared behind the taller gem. "What?" Garnet mused quickly. Kunzite took the minor distraction to try and kick her sword free, but Garnet turned and grabbed her leg before the blow could land. Immediately she pulled Kunzite through the air and slammed her into the dirt. Garnet then followed this action by pulling her up and throwing her to the side, causing her to skid for a few feet. Kunzite picked herself up and summoned a new sword from her gem, dirt loosening itself from her wild hair. "Okay. Fine. This is just great." She saw Garnet get ready to charge her.

"No, no! That's fine! I'll come to you! I'm about done with you Earth gems! I'm not a duelist, but I will be if I need to." Kunzite held her palm over her sword and it began to glow a soft pink as an aura protruded from the blade, letting off a soft buzz. "Go ahead and grab my sword again, I dare you." She took on her previous defensive stance, this time with murderous intent blazing in her eyes.

Garnet looked on with her future vision and came to the conclusion that, not only was there a 100% chance of either Sapphire or Ruby's destruction if she tried to grab the sword again, but there was a 100% chance that any contact with that sword would result in serious damage. "No." She said calmly. The murderous intent in Kunzite's eyes was quickly replaced as her eyes began to glow hot pink. She let out a guttural growl and Garnet couldn't help but be reminded of Kyanite whenever he had his fits of rage. "This isn't good."

Kunzite made a mad dash for Garnet and the taller gem scrunched her brow. This made no sense. After Kunzite went crazy all of the future paths started getting more and more varied. There was too many variables, too much changing, too many possible attacks. She was running on instinct now, and, while she had done this before, there was something slightly more worrisome about it this time. In each of the paths where she made a single mistake she lost one of her two halves. There was only one possible outcome where she succeeded and that outcome was becoming more and more difficult to find. Garnet sighed and took on her own battle stance, inwardly reassuring herself that she would make it through this alive.

Kunzite's first attacks were simple to dodge, just wild strikes thrown about, but the danger was still there. Garnet took a chance to return some hits, but after hitting her just once this proved to be dangerous. Kunzite spun around from the force of the punch, but kept moving forward. She was now flailing her sword in a fashion akin to that of a tornado, spinning with each swing and lowering or raising the height of her swings. Garnet was beginning to have trouble dodging each hit and was slowly backing up towards a thicket of trees.

A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her cheek as she readied herself. Time seemed to slow down for her as she worked both in and out of her future vision as quickly as she could in combat. She could see every outcome of Kunzite's next attack, a downward slash, paired up with any of her possible reactions and found the most optimal one in a split second. She followed that path down to a solid point where she could finally incapacitate the crazy gem. Garnet bit her lip and said, "Let's go, then." Time sped up and the downward slash barely grazed Garnet's cheek as she sidestepped and brought her left fist to the pink gem's side. Kunzite staggered back and Garnet held her cheek, hissing at the searing pain she felt. This was not a time for error. She ran up to the staggered gem, taking advantage of the window in her attacks to punch her once in the stomach and take two steps back. Just as expected, Kunzite growled at the blow and swung violently in front of her. Garnet let go of her cheek and cracked her neck.

"Pearl. It's been a long time." Spinel held his hands out to represent peace. Pearl pointed her spear at him, but warily tilted her head. She was still a little off from taking that blast from before. She could see that the large purple gem who controlled the dirt was focusing on Amethyst for now. She'd think of a way to help her in a minute, but first came the pink gem in front of her. "I don't know who you are, and I'm not going to take the risk of finding out!"Spinel tensed and reached for the back of his neck where he pulled a rod of light. The rod expanded into a long polearm just as Pearl lunged for an attack. "Pearl! It's me, Spinel! From before the war! I know it's been forever, but you've gotta remember me!" Pearl's attacks were ebbing in strength, it was subtle but noticeable. He was getting to her. "Come on, just let me speak!" This elicited the exact opposite response. Pearl growled and swept under him with a low kick, toppling him over. She pointed her spear down at his neck and a panic rushed over Spinel. "I don't know who you are and I don't care who you are! Homeworld will no-" In a last ditch effort to get through to his old friend, Spinel dissipated his helmet to reveal his face. Pearl near lost her grip and began to stutter, "Will-will not... S-spinel? I-you. I-" Pearl clutched at her head and crumpled to the ground. Tears welled in her eyes and she began to heave silently. "It's been a long time, Pearl."

Pearl's heaving cut off, "T-too long." She sniffled and tried to look up at him, for he was sitting up now, but couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes. Instead she settled with staring diagonally at the dirt. "I can barely remember the last time I saw you. I didn't even recognize your gem it's been so long, and here we are, once again, fighting to the death." Her tone was as dead as her eyes as she remembered darker times. Spinel looked down at the dirt as well, "Good times, huh, Pearl?" His voice picked up and he grabbed her hands, "But this is different! I know I deserted then, but the diamond authority is all kinds of wrong! We've come to Earth to get away from them! Just like you did." His voice trailed off with his last words as the look in Pearl's eyes turned to disgust. She stood up, leaving Spinel on the ground with his hands open, grasping for hers.

"I remember... I remember you left us for... THEM!" Tears ran down Pearl's cheeks, uncontrolled now. She was about ready to burst, she was so angry. "You thought that Earth was worth saving, you thought that it was a great planet, but what did you do? You LEFT US! All because you didn't think we could win!" Spinel rose to a knee, "Pearl." "You joined the Diamond's army because you didn't want to be on the LOSING SIDE! YOU SAID THAT TO ME! Now you come back out of nowhere and try to tell me THAT YOU SEE WHY WE STAYED!?" "Pearl!" "NO!" She shouted. Her hands were covering her face now and she was shaking, but suddenly her shaking stopped. She slowly pulled her hands away and wiped her tears, "No. You don't get that option. Not anymore. You had your chance, made your decision," She drew her spear again. "And you were wrong."

Pearl's spear implanted itself in the soil where Spinel once was. In a second he was off the ground and a couple feet away, drawing his own spear, but he hesitated. There was a sting of truth in her words. "I guess I haven't changed as much as I thought I have. But at least I know what's worth fighting for. Here, and now." Spinel scrunched his eyes and the clang of metal on metal resounded through the air. It was just like the first time they fought again, but something was off. It felt hollow this time; he felt hollow. Her attacks were fluid and his felt like rusty gears swimming through tar. With each clash the pain in his heart grew heavier until he finally faltered. Spinel made a wide sweeping arc that Pearl slid underneath, catching him by a leg and tripping him up. Pearl pinned him to the ground with her spear and summoned a second with which to keep fighting. She began running to Amethyst's aide, but stopped short to toss a passing glance to Spinel, "You lack the conviction to fight me now, as you did then, and you lack the conviction to make the RIGHT choices and fight for the RIGHT reasons. You don't know what's worth fighting and dying for, because you've never died." With those words she continued on and left Spinel in the dirt, sitting, lying, waiting. Thinking.

"UGH! COME ON! Just gonna two on one me, is that it!? Well I got news for ya! I ain't goin down to no skinny, emo, scythe wielding ANIME CHARACTER!" Amethyst's outbursts were starting to get on Onyx's nerves, but they weren't altogether unwarranted. She had been fighting both Onyx and Beryl which proved to both require her undivided attention and complete focus which were two things she didn't like giving alone, let alone at the same time. Onyx was quick, but she was also frail and light.

Amethyst could keep her distance for a few seconds and knock her away, but she'd always return, and usually from behind. Beryl, on the other hand, was a rather heavy gem, but she fought with the rocks and dirt around them so she never really needed to get close anyway. Amethyst had been trying to send the rocks hurtling back at her while dodging clods of dirt, but that plan had proven to be a flop. What she needed was help that she wasn't getting and it was starting to piss her off. "I've got you now, you little runt!" Onyx appeared behind her as she was pulling a rock away from it's original course. Her scythe slid easily and dangerously close to her neck. Just before the cool blade dug into her body it was knocked away and so was the gem who wielded it. Amethyst took in a deep breath and looked up to see Pearl standing smugly above her. "Amethyst! Get your act together! We can't risk losing here!" Amethyst glared up at Pearl and scowled. "You could have shown up sooner!" Pearl put her hands on her hips and indulged their argument, "Oh, I'm sorry for being able to handle my opponent!" Amethyst jumped up into Pearl's face, "WHAT!? You didn't have to fight TWO people at the SAME TIME!"

Just as Pearl prepared another scathing remark, a flourish of steel zipped between then and shot outward in a number of directions. Both Pearl and Amethyst jumped away from each other to dodge the attack. When Pearl touched down the earth beneath her opened itself like a gaping maw and swallowed her whole. Out of the spinning blades appeared Onyx and from the blade she pulled a handle to control it. She looked directly at Amethyst who was crouching warily with her whip in hand. "One down, one to go. Let's make this fast." Onyx continued her assault on the purple gem, now paired up with an even more relentless barrage of dirt and stone. Amethyst, as sprightly as she was, could not evade every attack and was soon overpowered and swallowed herself.

Garnet was starting to get the flow of her opponent. She was fast, deadly, and could teleport at will, but she was almost laughably reckless. Each vision that Garnet saw only showed her all of the flaws that the pink gem had. A sloppy swing to the left, dodge and gut punch. A violent outburst to the right and low, duck and jump kick. These were such simple reads that she probably didn't even need to use her future vision. Garnet landed one more punch and looked to her sight once more.

This time she got a much wider variety of outcomes, each pertaining to the gems that Amethyst and Pearl had been fighting. A wave of rock, a stray slash of a scythe, a few haphazard swings of the pink gem's sword that were followed by grasping dirt hands. This didn't bode well at all. The only option was a quick backpedal and a reevaluation of the battlefield. With the momentary retreat she dodged a flying boulder in the shape of a fist that seemed to stop in mid air and point at her again.

She could now see clearly that Pearl and Amethyst were nowhere to be seen and the scythe wielder and the geomancer made Garnet their prime target. She gulped and looked to her future, only to find that at the end of each road was an even more painful demise. The only way to possibly stall them out was to take out the pink gem first, or at the very least incapacitate her. Without hesitation, Garnet sprinted for Onyx, grabbed her blade mid swing and flung her at the stone first. The fist broke apart and reformed into two hands, giving her just enough time to dodge a final attack from Kunzite and punch her across the field and into Onyx as she was trying to recover. The stone fists made a beeline for her, forcing her to dodge to the side. Suddenly, the ground rose up as a hand, grabbing Garnet tightly and moving her an end of the field. Garnet gasped for air. She saw this in her sight, but it had such a low chance of happening that she took the risk anyway. There was no way the geomancer could have foreseen her dodging!

When the hand stopped moving the ground opened up on either side of her and out popped Pearl and Amethyst, both mostly covered except for their noses. Garnet was beginning to fear the worst and she dared not look to her future. Beryl looked to Onyx as she helped Kunzite to her feet. "What should we do with them? We don't know if they work for the Diamonds or if they're just run-off from the war. Either way, they clearly are violent." She paused and looked in her palm where she held Tourmaline's small gem. "And dangerous." Onyx glared down at them.

Panicked, muffled yells vibrated from the dirt mounds that held Amethyst and Pearl. Garnet remained stoically silent as sweat beaded down her face. "Whoever they are I'm not taking the risk of having them run freely. I don't know what they're doing here, but I'm not going to have an expense to worry about while we're here." She turned to limp towards their totaled ship. "Get rid of them, Beryl." The ground of the entire field began to rumble and upturn as large rocks pushed up through the soil and crumble into dust. Beryl's bangs blew out of her face, revealing glowing purple markings crawling up her cheeks to her gem on her forehead. A silvery liquid bled from her hands and fused with the crushed rocks and sediment. The rocks began to heat up until they melted, turning into molten lava before their eyes. Garnet's mouth was left agape. "That's-" Her voice caught in her throat as the wave of magma flowed towards the three trapped gems. The heat was intense, even to Garnet. She knew she'd survive, but she also knew that pearl and Amethyst wouldn't. "I'm sorry, Crystal gems. I failed you." garnet's voice broke and muffled murmurs of consolation radiated from the two mounds at her sides. Garnet shut her eyes tightly, blocking out the sight of their impending doom. "I couldn't stall them long enough!" Just as the two gems beside her began to question what she meant, a blue and red blur jumped from the bushes and landed in front of the wave. "GARNET, AMETHYST, PEARL!" Garnet yelled, "Steven! Amethyst and pearl shouted, Steven!?"

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"Steven." There was no response. "Steven!" "Wait! I have to see how these all go through! It takes a bit to get used to seeing all these possible futures! Aaaaaaaaaaaaand I've got it! Now," He paused. Steven looked around and pointed in a completely different direction, "Turn around." "STEVEN!" Kyanite turned on his heels and picked up as much speed as he could. Steven was pointing in the direction of out of town and he periodically altered his path. At first they kept to the streets and they happened across the cool kids driving as well. "This isn't going to work. We need to move faster!" Steven mused in a worried tone. "Hey Steven, what's up? Where do you need to go in such a hurry?" Buck leaned over the window as the car slowed to keep up with them. "We're trying to make it to the forest a couple miles that-a-way!"

Buck, Sour Cream, and Jenny looked where he was pointing now. Sour Cream whistled. "Whoa dude, I didn't even know there was a forest back there. Maybe you could hop in and we could check it out with you." "Especially if you need to get there fast." Jenny added. Kyanite shook his head, "Don't need it. Steven, how much time do we have." Steven shrugged to seem casual, but his face let all of his worry and fear be known. "Right." Before their eyes Kyanite was bathed in light and took on the form of a blue wolf, speeding up to outpace the car easily. "Hey! I'm pretty sure that's not only impossible and anatomically incorrect, but that's unfair!" Jenny sped up to try and keep up with the two gems. "Stay back!" Steven yelled behind them. The wolf leaped remarkably into the air and Jenny skidded to a halt, watching in awe as Steven and Kyanite took to the air. "I don't think we can follow them anymore, dudes."

Air whipped through Steven's hair as they neared the ground. Kyanite once again took on his regular form as the forest entered his vision from the skies. He picked Steven from his shoulders and tossed him slightly in the air once the ground came closer and caught him. "Time is of the essence, Steven. Where are we go- oh." There was a large plume of dark purple smoke rising from the middle of the forest. "Kyanite, we're cutting it close! We need to hurry it up!" Sweat beaded on Steven's brow as Kyanite pushed through branches and bushes. A dull red glow appeared from the openings between the leaves ahead of them. "You'll need your weapon for this one." Kyanite was offput by Steven's completely serious tone. His normal playfulness and childlike wonder was almost completely gone.

Their faces hardened as they jumped over one last bush, towards the red light, and over the Crystal gems. They spared not a passing glance at the gems as Kyanite hoisted his large war hammer above his head. The air chilled around the two, almost deathly so, but only for a second. The wave of lava hardened into stone again and Kyanite's war hammer tore through it like wet paper. "DUCK!" Kyanite followed the order, smoothly dodging Onyx's scythe. Kyanite broke his war hammer into two smaller hammers and parried another attack from the scythe wielder.

Steven started. "Behind us!" A hand sprung from the rubble, grasping for the blue gem's leg. Swiftly, he sidestepped another swing and struck the hand down. "She's the one controlling the rocks!" Steven pointed at Beryl, throwing her off guard. "On it." Came Kyanite's monotone response. In one fluid motion he grabbed Onyx's scythe blade, wrenching it from her grip, and tossing her into the larger purple gem. "Oof!" The larger gem caught the gem hurtling at her, but stumbled from the force. She held her hand up for another attack but met a hammer flying through the air. On impact it burst, sealing them both inside a thick block of ice. "There. Let's get the oth-" "KYANITE!" The warning came too late and Kunzite's sword had already made a deep slice through his left eye. Kyanite reeled back in anguish, knocking Steven off of his back. Kunzite, Beryl, Onyx, and even Spinel all looked up in shock at the blue gem, Kunzite especially so. "Oh no. Oh NO!" Steven began to mumble. Kyanite's gem and what was leftover of his left eye began to glow a sharp blue as he edged towards an episode of rage.

"Kyanite, NO! You know these gems!" Steven's words fell on deaf ears. Kunzite fell to her knees, paralyzed from finding her lost friend so long after his disappearance. The blue gem pulled a hammer back and it, too, began to glow sharply. "Don't…" Steven got to his feet and rushed in front of Kunzite. He raised his arm in defense for the Pink gem as Kyanite's hammer flew down. "DO THIS!" Rose's shield appeared, clashing intensely with Kyanite's hammer. Unlike previous times when he'd used the shield, where the attack had been repelled, Steven found both himself and Kyanite pushed back from the impact. The force knocked the wind out of him, but more importantly it knocked the sense back into his berserking friend. Kyanite's face reeled in horror when he realized he'd attacked Steven. He began to stutter, "St-Steven, I- I didn't- Wha-" His eyes locked with Kunzite's and his chest tightened, breath catching in his throat. She rose to her feet and held out her hands, clasping his face gently. Steven looked up, smiling with every bit of his naive childish fervor. He began to giggle excitedly and got up, walking over to the Crystal gems to dig them out of their earthen prisons.

"How long? How long has it been since I've been able to look into your eyes?" Kunzite grimaced and gingerly touched the gash on his left eye. "Well, eye." She frowned bashfully and Kyanite laughed despite the searing pain. "It's nothing. I'm not sure, but I can guess that I've experienced worse." He smiled as warmly as he could. "I'm just glad that I got to see you again. I feared I'd never be able to come back to Homeworld, but I didn't even need to! You came to me." "About that." A voice came from behind them. Onyx began, still encased in ice, "I hate to break up this lovely reunion, but please explain this." She gestured at Kyanite and he looked confused. "And them." This time she nodded at the Crystal gems and Steven, the latter of which waved back cheerfully. "I also see you brought Onyx." If she took any offense to his words she made good work of not showing it. beryl opened her mouth, "Mind letting us out? We promise to make nice since you are." The blue gem held his hand out and the ice shattered into a light blue mist, returning to his hand and taking on the form of his missing hammer.

"We suspected you hadn't survived the war, especially after that stunt the Diamonds pulled. Almandine was furious and nearly pushed them to the edge with all of her accusations for years." Onyx's head lowered, "Then came the years where she was just…" Her voice trailed off. "But that's neither here nor there. The fact that you're alive is enough for now. Maybe others are as well." Kyanite walked over to Steven, "Actually, I was hit by whatever the Diamonds did. It was this little guy who saved me. Ever since then I've kind of been sticking with him. It wasn't long ago, either. About three weeks now, I think. I don't know why we ever wanted to take over this planet. It's awesome here!" Beryl and Spinel looked at each other, brows creased by forlorn faces. "What are you all doing here, though. Homeworld isn't trying to come back to finish what they started are they?"

The crystal gems tensed up, awaiting their response. Beryl spoke again, "Not to my knowledge. I haven't been informed of any such thing. Besides, we wouldn't know anyway. Not since we defected from Homeworld." She said these words as though they weren't capital offenses, her voice calm and nonchalant. "We came here in the hopes that they wouldn't know to look for us here. There's almost no open knowledge about this planet on Homeworld. Not since Rose's Rebellion." Beryl walked up to Kyanite and grabbed his face in a huge hand, moving it left and right as she inspected him. He was a good head or two taller than her, but her stocky build betrayed her strength. "For now, that's neither here nor there. Do tell us about this new form you seem to have taken on. I thought only Spinel admired how…" She paused, "'Male' humans looked." Kyanite looked dumbfounded.

"I…you…what?" He had never seen how he looked, before or after his reformation. "Oh. You don't know. Maybe it had something to do with his savior. A subconscious knee-jerk reaction, perhaps." She spoke as if she were talking to someone else. She turned and started, "Tourmaline, what do you-" When she saw that the thin green gem wasn't there she remembered. "Ah. Right. She's…" She stopped abruptly. "Well." She turned, still holding Kyanite's face, to face the Crystal gems. "I believe we have much to talk about. Perhaps you have a place where we may talk in peace?" Pearl and Amethyst looked shocked that she would ask after the fight they just had.

"WHAT!?" Amethyst started sharply. "Now see here!" Pearl continued. "We just fought each other near death and you expect us to share with you the location of our temple!? Are you CRAZY!?" Amethyst bristled, "Yeah! Tell'em Pearl!" having been encouraged, Pearl got ready for a long tirade of insults and arguments, "And furthermore, How do yo-" "yeah, alright." Garnet interrupted. "Come on." She turned and began to walk, leaving the dumbstruck Amethyst, Pearl, and Kyanite behind. Beryl and Onyx followed avidly, tailed shortly by Kunzite and Spinel who both looked uncomfortable. "YAY!" Steven cheered as he walked alongside Garnet. After a second Kyanite steadied himself and shook Amethyst and pearl out of their funk. Amethyst shrugged off the obvious uneasiness of the happenings of the day, but Pearl was visibly fuming. "This can't possibly end well…" She grumbled.

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**Well! This was Reunion, and ****The more I looked at the ideas that went into this chapter the more I realized just how it couldn't possibly be a short chapter. As i wrote and wrote I constantly beat myself up over how I could be so naive as to thinkety think that this could be short. I mean, for god's sake, this is the reunion of Kyanite and Kunzite, not to even mention Kyanite with the rest of his brief old group. Then there was the fight and then the multiple POV's and ugh it just... it all hit me pretty hard. But I think, even though I'm butt cheeks at fight scenes, I handled it rather well! Please leave any constructive criticism or feedback in reviews. Again, I thrive on that stuff. Gets me going in the morning, like coffee. But for now, I'm signing off, peace off - Beem0b0t ;D**

**EDIT: I think fixed a bit of the spacing issues, but I still can't properly get the paragraphs to indent so I'll probably alter my writing style to fit this fact since I desperately rely on indentations in my current writing style.**

**EDIT AGAIN: Editing sucks AAAAASSSSSS**


	6. Hand in Unlovable Hand (cut-off chapter)

**Hello! This particular fanfiction was written both a tribute to the link below**

post/124716024980/no-children

**and because it works very well with Renegade and furthering the story. Even if it's just a cut-away chapter it's something while I'm still working on Chapter 7 which is taking an extraordinarily long time to write. I hope you understand my predicament. Please know that I am struggling with writing. That's it. Nothing really bad to worry about. My life is well. I finished the Steven Bomb with marginally undamaged feelings, I finished summer school easily and quickly, I got an interview for a job and did pretty decent, I have successfully planned a second storyline for when I finish the "Renegade" storyline so I can be busy after I finish this one, assuming of course I EVER DO. I really hope my writer's block wraps itself up soon. I really want to finish this chapter. It's pretty important, right with a few other particularly fun chapters. That and the characters finally have a chance to interact. Although, not all of the characters are interacting yet. I have many big plans for this fiction. Anyway, I'm done rambling, please enjoy!**

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The world is so dark. There is no sound, no light, and nothing to feel other than the vast amount of crushing water that holds me in place. I don't know why, but in my life all I've ever wanted was death. I can feel the two forces that have come together to form my body warring with each other. I can feel their fear, their anger, their despair, and most of all I can feel their pain. It's tearing me apart, but it's also holding me together. I never asked for this to happen. I never even had a chance to become accustomed to the world of anguish that I now reside in. I'm alone, but I've never been more angry with the people I somehow know. Names are burned into my brain. Names that I fear, that I hate, that I love. Names that mean something to someone, but not to me. I don't know how long it's been, how long I've been beneath these heavy waves. This is not my home. I don't have a home. I have nothing, but a name. I am not Lapis Lazuli. I am not Jasper. I am not their failure or their prison. I am Malachite, and I'm tired of this. I am angry and I am done with being someone else's label. I am my own, and those two are going to learn to live with that. Now they have a new contender in their fight for control, and I'm not bound by their rules.

"LET ME OUT OF THIS WATER PRISON, BRAT!" The plane of water had ripples of water bumping helplessly into each other as Jasper and Lapis struggled against their dual chains. Lapis's wings forced her ever above the water, but Jasper's strength constantly pulling against her kept her grounded. "I'll never let you go! Not as long as I have strength to fly! If I can't be free, then neither can you!" Jasper growled and pulled herself to the surface. Loads of water flowed through her hair and down into the pool underneath her palms. "You're making a mistake doing this to me. You're going to die for this. I can guarantee that." Jasper clawed her way over to Lapis and glared into her eyes. "And I hope you die painfully." Lapis glared coldly back. "We're drowning, Jasper. You're coming down with me, and we'll both die." Jasper's eyes shrank into dots of blind fury. She began to thrash and shout and yell, but never kicked up above the pool. Lapis pulled her hands close to her chest and pushed off of the surface, trying desperately to take to the air, her wings beating feverishly.

Suddenly, their chains both tugged them into the water. The water began to roil and bubble, steaming up into a thick, green mist. "Wha-what are you DOING BRAT!?" Jasper yelled as her head bobbed under the water. Lapis herself struggled against the relentless waves pulling them closer to each other. "I'm not d-doing anything!" The water violently churned into a maelstrom, pulling the two side by side and whipping them in circles. Then, just as they started, they stopped in the side of the rushing rapids. A single dark green hand crashed through the center, followed by an arm. Then another arm pushed itself through. The slender, dark green arms were marked with lighter green streaks. They placed themselves at opposite sides of the whirlpool and pulled up a hulking green mass with a pure white mane of hair. Her face was devoid of emotion and her eyes were dead as she situated herself against the water. Jasper and Lapis watched in mute horror as the beast brought itself forth.

"Hello. Do you know me? Because I know you. Both of you. I know you better than you know yourselves, and I know that neither of you really want to be down here." Her face twisted into an ugly grimace, her sharp fangs gleaming dully in what little light was allowed through the pool. She leaned forward until her face was level with both Lapis and Jasper. The green mist got thicker and surrounded the two. "I am Malachite. You two are the two who put me in this position. Because of you, I am drowning! I've known nothing but the dark! I hope you know now that I'm in control of this. Now it's my turn. There is nothing for you to do now, but watch as I finish what you've started. I can see what you both want, and I want nothing more than to indulge you. You want for the other to die. You want the dark to be here forever, well far be it from me to deny you." The water began to take them around again, faster than before. Lapis and Jasper were helpless as they watched Malachite stare at them with pure contempt. The world went dark and mute, but Malachite's further words echoed loud and clear in the blank space.

"I hope your little friends give up on trying to save us. I hope the little petty ideas you had of redemption fall down beneath their weight. I hope it's already too late. I hope the mists of the ocean take me away from this darkness. I hope the darkness I know will spread everywhere. I hope I can take as many people I can with me. I hope the worst isn't over. I hope I never get sober. I hope my rage bleeds everywhere. I hope those who believe in saving us are all wrong. I hope that when you think of me years down the line you can't find one good thing to say. I hope that if I find the strength to rise up you stay the hell out of my way. I am drowning and there's no sign of land. You're both coming down with me. I hope you die. I hope we both die. Hand in monstrous, unlovable hand."

Malachite's eyes shot open. For the second time in her torturous life she could see the light at the surface. She could feel the death in the water. So many types of fish were rising to the top with her. She could tell that the light was still miles off, but she could finally see it. For the first time in her life she would taste real freedom, and she would make sure that, somehow, her creators would never taste it ever again because of her. She would make them pay for what they made of her existence.


	7. Riptide

**AHH! AHH! AHH! I! FINALLY! DID! IT! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I'M A LEGEND! or very tired... whichever. FINALLY finished the chapter that so vexed me. Deep down in my core, I knew exactly how this chapter went, but having to write exposition, a fight scene, a dance scene, and then a climactic fight scene and then in a way that all fit fluidly with the characters they featured, both the ones that ARE mine and the ones who AREN'T mine which are surpisingly easier to write for. It all just left me so very drained and confused and annoyed, but I perservered! I'm still not thoroughly happy with the outcome but that makes me feel better about it all. If I'm not happy with it then that means I can still improve, I still feel the challenge looming over me, I still will keep writing! I do hope you enjoy my longest chapter yet! This took me ages, simply ages, to write out. I also plan to have two other chapters out, one elaborating Spinel's story/relation to the Crystal Gems and one regarding my favorite gem, Peridot. Again, please write a review, I love reading feedback! Nothing makes me happier than seeing a review in my inbox. Without further ado, Riptide.**

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The path through the forest had already been freshly cleared from when Kyanite and Steven crashed through it. Branches were cracked and hung by thin fibers, swaying in the wind and bushes were warped to one side or uprooted altogether. The gems walked in two groups, one behind the other. The first being Garnet, Pearl, Beryl, and Onyx and the second comprised of Spinel, Kyanite, Steven, Amethyst, and Kunzite.

"You know, I have to admit, that was kind of fun!" Steven declared excitedly. The silence and looks he received from both groups forced him to rethink his words. "I mean. Without the whole 'everyone trying to kill each other' thing going on. I guess it would be fun. Perhaps." With each break in the statement Steven grew quieter until he finally just stopped talking.

Beryl and Garnet paid no mind to Steven's antics and strode calmly forward. "I need to speak with you about something important, if what you tell us is true." Beryl shrugged, "You have good judgment. You know for a fact what I told you was true. I will share any information you may need from me, if I can." Garnet shook her head. "I don't say that for me. I say that for her." She nodded at Pearl who was eyeing Beryl harshly. Beryl nodded. "Ah. I see." There was silence for another moment. Then Beryl spoke again, "If I may. Does this conversation need to be had where you are leading us, or can we have it here?" Garnet shrugged this time, "It doesn't matter where it's had. It's just not meant for everyone here's ears. Not everyone needs to know about it and frankly you're the only one I can judge has a level head." Onyx shifted, "Surely you wouldn't mind if I were to tag along as well?" There was a sharp edge in her words that sounded more like a threat than an actual clarification. Garnet ignored the tone, but Pearl bristled, "In case you weren't paying attention, Garnet said only…" She stopped, not knowing the purple gem's name. "Beryl." She spoke. "Beryl can have access to the information we have! Now, why don't you go and-" "Pearl." Garnet interrupted. "That's enough. We don't need any more hostility. The air is tense enough as it is. Let's just have a calm walk back to the temple." Pearl could easily recognise the controlled frustration in Garnet's voice and shrank back.

Onyx looked back and saw Kyanite carrying Steven up on his shoulders. She squinted and barely caught a glimpse at the rose quartz gem that was embedded in Steven's bellybutton. "That kid. He has a Rose Quartz gem." She mused aloud. Pearl visibly tensed as she spoke. "What happened to Rose after the war? What is going on with what's left of the rebels?" Pearl was about to open her mouth and release a tirade of flak, but she was cut off by Garnet again, "That is another thing that should wait for later." "But-" Onyx began to press the matter, but Beryl held up her hand. "Now isn't the time, Onyx. Have patience.

"What do you think they're talking about up there?" Steven hummed. Amethyst scoffed, "Probably stupid gem Homeworld junk. All this Homeworld stuff is really becoming more trouble than it's worth. I mean, how're we gonna deal with'em?" She looked around at the gems surrounding her. "We're just a ragtag team of gems who happen to have pissed off Homeworld and gotten themselves stuck in a super sticky situation." Steven gasped, "Amethyst! Your mouth!" Kunzite grabbed her arm, "Well, she has a bit of a point. We're all a bit in over our heads. Homeworld is this huge, technologically advanced universal force. They could blip us out of existence whenever they wanted, if they wanted it. They just don't know we're here yet or what our importance is, if any at all." Spinel laughed. Amethyst looked up at the tall pink gem with a scrunched face, "You find something funny there? That we should be pretty much super doomed just by existing but they don't even care about us to find out that we're here and get rid of us?" Spinel's laughter ebbed and her rubbed at one of his eyes. "Well, yeah!"

He looked at the confused faces around him. "Think about it! What's freaking all of you out and making you guys sad is our greatest advantage. They either don't know or don't care! That gives us time to plan an attack while they're complacent with our existence! They'd never expect it if we were to turn the tables on them!" His eyes were lit with a spark, but whether it were confidence or insanity the others couldn't tell. "The way I see it I'll even bet that if they do come to attack us first they'll not even come with an army. They'll send someone they think is pretty strong and leave it at that. We'll easily outmatch anyone they could possibly send and then we'd have a way back to Homeworld to finish the job!" Amethyst clapped slowly and stared up through half-lidded eyes. "Great idea, excellent, really. It's just that the only flaw with it is, oh I don't know, THEY ALREADY KNOW WE'RE HERE!?" Both groups stopped dead in their tracks and turned to face the short purple gem. Immediately Amethyst regretted her words.

"They're already here!?" Yelled Onyx. She turned to Garnet with blazing eyes. "How long have they been here!? How long have they known!?" Beryl placed a steady hand on Onyx's stomach and turned her head to Garnet who sighed and placed a hand on her forehead. "I had hoped this could wait until we got to the temple. It would be easier to explain there. All I ask of you is patience." Onyx glanced angrily at Beryl who shook her head and smiled slightly. She scowled and hissed out, "Fine. But if you betray us…" She paused and looked over her allies, soon realizing they were in no position to fight. Onyx glared at the ground for a second and shook her head slowly. "Just… take us to your temple. We have no other options."

Garnet took a second to try and read Onyx's face, but turned quietly back down the path. Onyx's turned her face to the ground and Beryl kept her eyes on her from beneath her bangs. Pearl wanted desperately to say something, but resisted the urge, simply holding her arm in awkward silence. Steven looked around at each of the gems as they walked in quiet through the crushed bushes. Kyanite felt Kunzite squeeze his hand tightly, and he saw her averting her eyes. She bit her lip and stared at the ground as they moved forward. Spinel looked to Garnet and Pearl, his gaze hardened. Amethyst rubbed her shoulder, biting her tongue and resenting her outburst. The air was tense and the walk felt hollow and cold despite the afternoon sun being high.

The walk took less than a few minutes to find the road returning to Beach City, and a little under an hour to walk back. By that time, Steven had started to nod and fell asleep on Kyanite's shoulders. The large group received many a passing glance as they moved quietly through Beach City, but trudged forward, in silence, uncaring. Spinel made a few passing glances at townsfolk when he could, giving compliments like: "They look so different now!" and "Such curious designs." He touched Kyanite's shoulder. "I have to admit, I never could have foreseen this type of progression from them. Even though they're still so primitive, it's very interesting to see how far they've come." Kyanite smiled, "I think they're amazing and quirky creatures. Far more fun to be around than gems. At least based on past experiences I can recall." Spinel's face twisted into one of confusion and he looked over at Kunzite, whose face mirrored his.

The sound of concrete underfoot was traded in for wood as they came to the boardwalk. Mayor Dewey was standing on the boardwalk, looking over the sea, and nervously gnawing on his nails. He turned when he heard Garnet step onto the wooden planking. "Ah! There you three a-aaaAAAAH! WHO'RE THEY!?" He pointed at the group of unfamiliar gems behind Garnet. His panic began to escalate into full on hysteria. "UGGGHHHH! You know what!? No! This can wait! You need to do something! The ocean is-is…" He paused and grabbed his head. "I don't know, but no one can swim in it! The water is making people sick! You have to do something!" Garnet stared at Mayor Dewey for a couple seconds before asking, "Why do we have to do that exactly? Just don't swim in it." The mayor laughed hysterically and pulled at what was left of his hair, "This town is a tourist attraction and that's our biggest attraction! We're literally called Beach City! You've protected us before, but you turn a blind eye to this!? We have no idea what's going on here, so you're the only logical explanation to what happening to the beach! You need to do something!"

Garnet sighed and picked up the man. Despite his protests she walked down the boardwalk and onto the beach to observe the water more closely. Apparently she got too close to the water for the mayor's liking. "Hey! HEY! Don't get me too close to that stuff! I have no idea what it is!" garnet peered into the water and noticed that it was a dark green and seemed to be moving much more violently in. Some of the water rushed up to her foot and began to sizzle. Garnet hissed and pulled back. "Great." She whispered. She returned the mayor to the ground and spoke as though she were talking to her fellow gems as opposed to the mayor. "This is a bad position we've found ourselves in. We need to and will do something about this." The mayor smiled and nodded, "Oh, finally you see what I'm saying! Beach City would be nothing without this beach! Thank you so much! Please hurry, though." With that he turned and ran back up the boardwalk. Garnet shook her head and headed for the beach house. "This's going to be horrible."

Garnet sighed. She took off her glasses once she got to the house's front door. She placed her hand against the wall next to the door and settled her forehead against the wooden paneling. "Pearl." She began. The lithe gem in question jumped slightly at her name. "Yes?" She squeaked. Garnet opened the door and walked toward the temple door, replacing her glasses on her face. "Come with us, and act rationally. We have a lot to discuss. A lot of very important things to discuss." Onyx and Beryl followed suit behind the two. They kept silent as they walked through the threshold. Spinel was the second to come through, followed by Amethyst, Kyanite, and Kunzite. Steven hadn't noticed they'd made it home and remained asleep. Garnet opened the door to the burning room, and turned to see those who were following her. "Spinel. You come, too. You need to hear what I have to say as well. Amethyst keep an eye on Steven with Kyanite." Spinel's face hardened as he strode into the room. Beryl paused and turned, "Here." She said and handed a small multicolored gem to Amethyst. "Keep an eye on This one as well, if you would. She means a lot to me."

"I think I'll stay out here as well. W-with Kyanite." Amethyst nodded at Kunzite over her shoulder and turned around with the small gem in hand. The door to the temple closed behind the others. "Go 'head and put Steven in his bed. I'll just… siddown for a minute." Amethyst plopped down on the couch. She sighed and placed her palms to her eyes. "Are you alright? Things seem tense here to say the least. Disregarding we essentially just tried to kill each other not too long ago, of course." Amethyst peeked from under her hand. She could see Kunzite staring down at her nervously from the other side of the coffee table. She could also make out Kyanite's hair and hands out of the corner of her eye. She decided he was leaning over the edge of Steven's room and staring down at her, too. Amethyst pushed herself up onto her arms. "Yeah, we've had a rough couple of months. Even before this guy showed up." She thrusted her thumb at Kyanite. "These homeworld gems showing up threw a huge wrench in our lives. We were barely gettin used to havin Steven around and now these guys show up? Can you blame us for stressing out?" She smiled, even tried to laugh, but the weight of their situation kept her sober.

Kunzite rubbed her shoulder and looked up at Kyanite. A smile began to grace her features and she loosened up. Taking a seat next to Amethyst, she began, "You know, I spent my whole life on Homeworld and never thought for one second that I could trust the Diamond authority. They've just done too much to hurt me and my friends for me to. I can only imagine how hard you've had it lately, and how hard it's been to stay under their radar for as long as you have, but I can sympathize, and I know the others can. I'm sure they're going to do anything they can to help. I know I will." Amethyst smiled up at the pink gem. Her warm demeanor somehow relieved Amethyst of her anxiety. "Thanks. That's actually awesome. This whole Homeworld stuff really came out of nowhere. We've found them doing experiments and all kinds of other things. It's terrifying. Like 'fate worse than death' type stuff, y'know?" Kunzite's face hardened into ice-cold fury. "Yes. I can imagine a fate worse than death. Easily." She sighed and turned her gaze out the window, her face softening. "But that's a story for another day."

"You guys can go catch up now if you'd like." Kunzite turned to see Amethyst watching the temple door intently. "Hm?" She squeaked. "You both know each other well, but you haven't seen each other in a long time. I can imagine how much you two have to catch up. I can relate to that. You should go catch up while you two have the time. I can watch Steven fine by myself. I don't know what I'd give to be able to talk to the gem I miss." Kyanite leapt from Steven's room to the floor in front of the coffee table. "She has a point. I have so many questions, and It's been so long since we've seen each other! I have so much I want to show you, to show all of you! This world is so amazing!" Kunzite could feel heat rushing to her cheeks. Seeing Kyanite as excited as he as now was an all new experience to her, and she kind of liked this new change of pace. He had always been so stoic and repressed. She pushed a stray piece of wild pink hair away from her face and stood up. Her face was more alight with happiness than it had been in millenia.

"That sounds great!" She giggled. Kyanite beamed and grabbed her hand, bolting for the door with Kunzite in tow. She let out another squeak before looking over her shoulder and throwing back a hurried, "Thank you!" to Amethyst. Through watery eyes, she nodded at the door as it shut behind the pair.

"All of these gems…" Spinel paused after he entered the room, scanning each and every bubble in the room. His eyes betrayed an intense, burning anger and cold horror growing deep inside his mind. "You should remember most of them. I should hope you do, at least. Some of them are poor gems from the diamonds' army that couldn't retreat fast enough. Each of them caught in the blast that ended the war and corrupted beyond saving. At least, we thought they were." Onyx scoffed as Garnet finished her sentence. "You have something you'd like to say?" Garnet considered her over her shoulder. She had originally been fixated on a bubble on one end of the room with an odd gem inside of it. The gem also seemed to make Pearl uncomfortable. "The diamonds have already figured out how to revert corruption," She started. "in lieu of breaking them that is." She finished darkly. "THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY LESS TERRIBLE!" Spinel burst out. Streaks of a hot pink, electricity-like energy coursed over his skin from the star cut gem on his neck.

Beryl firmly grasped his hand in hers. This touch seemed to be all he needed to calm down, because as soon as it started to flare up the energy began to ebb. "There are so many." "And far too many left, yet uncollected." Garnet turned to face Onyx. "Homeworld may have found a way to reverse the travesties they created, but we're not Homeworld. We've been secluded for millennia and safe because of this." She bit her lip and made a passing glance at the various bubbles surrounding them. "Well… mostly safe. We recently found that Steven, the current wielder of the Rose Quartz gem can heal these corrupted gems and return them to their former lives. The proof is in Kyanite. The only problem is that the effect is weak. It takes multiple applications of Steven's healing… abilities to fix corrupted gems." Beryl shrugged. "That seems like it would be more of a minor annoyance than a complete impediment. What's the catch?" Garnet adjusted her glasses, "When the gem is returned to their form they retain some of their corruption. They don't actually revert to their base form until the healing is completed. Steven was able to convince Kyanite not to kill him, but we can't assume this will work with every gem he heals."

She turned again and grabbed ahold of the bubble with the odd gem. "This is the main reason why I brought you here." She offered the bubble to Beryl, who took it into her hand and inspected it. After she looked at it, she promptly gasped and dropped it to the ground before taking a step back in disgust. "WHAT IS THAT THING!?" Spinel and Onyx both jumped, startled from her uncharacteristically loud tone. She was staring at the orb through wide eyes that threatened to water up, clutching her chest all the while. "THAT-" She caught herself. "That is an afront to gemkind. What is it?" Garnet picked up the bubble and stared at it reproachfully. "Peridot referred to them as Clusters. As you can see they are broken gems forced to fuse together with no way of unfusing. They are all made up of gems who fought and died for Rose Quartz's side of the war, and there are more than I can count. We can only assume that there are more areas that are cultivating these Clusters." Onyx averted her gaze from the monstrosity, whilst Spinel visibly seethed, letting off sparks of energy as he did before.

"What are you going to do with them?" There was a pause of silence as Garnet only stared at the orb. She seemed to look not at the gem as a whole, but each of its components individually. Beryl took the silence as her answer and moved her hand over the bubble. "This isn't our main concern as of yet. This is just a horrible thing that happened for a horrible reason. I understand what you're going through," She moved her bangs to the side so that she could look Garnet in her eyes. "Trust me."

Garnet's mouth opened, but she only stuttered, "Y-you-" Beryl held up her hand and took the bubble from Garnet's. "That is neither here nor there. The important matter is stopping the Homeworld gems that are currently here." With that she replaced the bubble. "We know there is a Peridot here causing havoc, but who are the others?" This time Pearl piped up. She was done with being silent and jumped at the chance to give information. "Well, there are only three gems that came. There is the Peridot who we have been working profusely to track, but to no avail. Then there are the other two. Jasper, a large and overly violent brute of a gem and Lapis Lazuli, a gem who can control water. They have fused and Lapis, who took over control of the fusion, trapped them at the bottom of the ocean. This, as you can imagine, is not an optimal situation for us. We can only assume that Malachite, their fusion, has taken on a mind of her own and is realizing the true power that she wields."

Onyx looked over each of the bubbles. "Did they mention who they worked for?" Garnet and Pearl looked to the pale gem. "What do you mean?" Questioned Pearl. "A diamond. Did they mention any specific diamond? If they did then they have direct access to alerting that diamond. Anyone who knows exactly who they work under usually has direct access to them." "Yellow Diamond." Garnet almost fearfully. Onyx sighed and placed a hand on her head, specifically over the gem on the side of her skull. The gem began to glow and an image projected from it. A tall, thin, and imposing gem was shown from the image. "She works with interplanetary 'peace keeping.'" The last two words incited air quotes. "By which I mean she imposes the intense, burning wrath of whatever the diamonds would have for you if you betrayed them to all colonies to ensure they remain… civil." Each word dripped with venom that could kill a whale. "There haven't been too many upscale rebellions like yours, but there have definitely been other rebellions. With experiments like the ones going on here, it's a wonder they haven't just made an entire kingdom of mindless corrupted drones." Garnet ground her teeth. "They retain their memories. Each gem that's stuck in a forced fusion has the knowledge of their life before the fusion. They remember each waking second of torture they went through during the process, too."

Onyx took a step back, "Look, that's not what I meant." Garnet in turn took a step forwards. "Then elaborate!" Onyx held up her hands defensively. "Calm down! I wasn't even talking about your little clusters. One of the diamonds has the power to control gems. I never found out which, but Almandine told me about her. She told me that she was the reason they got away with the horrible things they do. All of the experiments they perform on unwilling gems are made possible because of her. Count yourselves lucky that all you have to deal with is this. There are entire colonies of gems who are actively subject to this kind of thing with no way of preventing it." She bit her lip. "It's horrible, but it's just how life is, isn't it?"

Onyx sighed, placing a hand over her eyes. "Let's just focus on fixing the problem at hand. The last thing we need is a diamond like Yellow Diamond to come here from an alert. No one wins in that scenario." She held out her hand to Garnet. "We seem to have a similar problem since we came here to be free from them. We'll help fix your problem so that we may both share a peaceful home. Would you accept our help?" Garnet considered her hand before taking it. "Do either of us have much of a choice in the matter?"

The temple door opened and Amethyst watched as the group of gems entered the beach house. "Yo. Welcome back. How'd negotiations go?" Onyx huffed and said, "We came to the mutual understanding that we're all more or less screwed and that working together would probably serve to prolong the inevitable." Amethyst scratched her head. "That sounds about right. The other two went out to play, so it's just me here with Steven. He's still napping, though, so nothing's really happening." She paused and scratched her head as she thought for a second. Garnet turned to Pearl and began, "Alright-" "OH! I forgot, Connie called. Said she was going to come over at some point!" Amethyst interrupted. The group stared at the proud looking AMethyst for a couple seconds before garnet continued her thought. "Alright, Pearl, these gems will need a place where they can stay. Out of all possible options, I believe Mask Island would be the best choice. You should go and show them around for now. Help them get situated."

Pearl looked uneasy, but nodded nonetheless. She stepped onto the warp pad, followed by Beryl and Onyx. Garnet grabbed Spinel's hand before he could step on. The trio were engulfed in light and disappeared. "Is something wrong?" Spinel asked hesitantly. Garnet released his hand and folder her arms over her chest. "Yes. All this time and you haven't recognized them at all. I think they're kind of jealous you remembered Pearl before them. Especially with how much time they spent swarming you when you were here." Spinel squinted at the taller gem, trying to piece together what she was talking about. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember you at all. I never saw a Garnet before, let alone as part of Rose's rebellion or any preceding rebellions." Garnet smiled, "Preceding rebellions? That's more than you've told any of us before. Maybe I won't tell you who I am and see how much information I can wring out of you."

Spinel glared at her. "I'm having trouble seeing the point of this. If you're just messing with me then you can stop now." Garnet chuckled. Amethyst, who had been watching intently, slowly rolled onto her side to get more comfortable. "You were always so defensive. I guess it's only fair that you know, although it hurts you weren't able to notice." She lifted her hands, revealing Sapphire and Ruby's gems to Spinel. His mouth went slack and his eyes grew wide. "Ruby? Sapph? You're a fusion of…" Spinel took a step forward. In the blink of an eye, he shot forward and picked Garnet up effortlessly. Her smile grew wider as she spun in his arms. "HAHAHA! It's been so long! I shoulda known you two wouldn't have been hit by that blast!" He let Garnet fall from his arms. Spinel's smile faded as a sudden realization hit him. "I-i'm so sorry, I…" He stepped back. "I hope they're not- you're not angry with me." Garnet looked confused, then broke out into laughter.

"OH COURSE THEY'RE MAD AT YOU!" Garnet's glasses disappeared, showing her watering eyes. She grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look her in the eye. "You just up and left in the middle of the entire war! They adored you and you practically fell off of the face of the Earth! Literally!" They were both tearing up at this point. "They're angry, but they missed you too much for that to matter right now."

"Aww!" The two turned to see Amethyst and Steven watching in content. Garnet turned and picked up the small human-gem hybrid. "How long have you been up, cutie?" Steven giggled as he was held aloft in Garnet's arms. Spinel looked at the child's gem once more. "So… what's happened to Rose if this child has her gem? Am I to assume the worst?" Garnet tutted as Steven's face fell. She poked his nose and said, "We are to assume nothing. Rose gave her form to create a new life. He is a human and gem hybrid. The first and only of his kind. He has already manifested Rose's abilities, as you've seen." "And he makes an amazing together breakfast!" Amethyst piped in. Spinel laughed and leaned against the kitchen counter. "I'll take your word for it. You know, if we are to stay here now, we should begin learning about our new world. What do you do here, exactly, besides keep the peace?" Steven's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates and he opened his mouth. "Ah! Before you start, why don't you go and see if you can't find connie. She's going to be coming soon and we have business we need to finish with, alright?" Steven cooed at the thought and hurriedly made for the door. "I'll be back later! Maybe I can introduce her to Kyanite and the rest of the new gems, too! See ya later!"

"So much energy. Just like her. What else did he inherit?" Spinel sighed through half lidded eyes. "You know I could never keep up with Rose even when she was here. It looks like that's stayed." Garnet chuckled. "It's hard, honestly." Spinel took the silence afterwards to consider Amethyst. "So, who's this? I don't recall her being part of Rose's rebellion." Amethyst looked up at Garnet, who returned her gaze. "Ah. First things first, then."

"So, you don't remember much of anything at all still?" Kyanite shifted uneasily. Kunzite was balanced on her toes just in front of the waves with her arms dangling over her knees. He, on the other hand, was standing watching as she drew little pictures in the sand that never became anything before they were washed into oblivion. "Still?" He echoed. Kunzite looked up. "You never could remember much about yourself when you came to us from The Diamond's personal guard. You were simply given a new job and new orders to follow Almandine. No one knows why you never could remember your time as a guard or why you couldn't remember your actual life up to that point." She returned her gaze to the sand again. The fizzing greenish water rolled up too close and splashed her finger, forcing her to pull back. "It was suspected that you were cultivated in a kindergarten for the specific purpose of being a guard, but were replaced by a stronger gem." She stood up and looked Kyanite in the eye. A small hand pushed the navy hair away from his gem. "But I know that that can't possibly be true. Something happened. You're too strong of a gem to be replaced so easily. Especially with your rage. I learned as much about you as I could in your absence. I thought maybe If I kept your memory in my mind that I would one day be reunited with you." She chuckled, a light, airy sound. "I guess all that time spent hoping worked out for me."

Kyanite grabbed her hand, not forcefully, but meaningfully. "Kunzite. I need to know who I am. This has been bothering me ever since I regenerated. I know nothing of myself! Just bits and pieces! You know. Please, tell me!" His voice cracked desperately. Her pink hand slipped from his grasp and she stepped back. Her face was blotted with sudden anxiety. "I… I don't know if that would be best, Kyanite. There are things about you. Things that you've done. Things that have happened to you. I know so much that can hurt you, but I don't want to be one of those things!"

Kyanite's body shook tersely as he clutched at the sides of his head. "I don't care about that! I don't care about pain! ALL I'VE KNOWN IS PAI-" He stopped himself as he noticed the water receding from the shore. They watched as the water pulled from the sand and collect into a massive green hill. "What?" Kyanite muttered, shuffling away from the coastline. The hill of water moved lazily forward towards the coast, becoming larger and larger and pulling in more and more water. Kyanite and Kunzite summoned their weapons, taking on defensive stances. The water bubbled and boiled, cresting high into the air, until finally bursting out revealing an ominous green gem with a wild mane of white hair. The water hissed as it rushed down her lean shoulders. She fell limp just as she burst from the water, plummeting to the ground, only barely catching herself with her two toned arms. She huffed quietly for a couple of seconds. She hadn't seemed to notice the two of them yet.

Kunzite watched uncomfortably as the monster of a gem switched from huffing to chuckling to a dark, loud cackle. "I'm free. I'M FREE! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Now I can make this planet suffer like I do!" Kyanite dropped to an all too familiar stance to Kunzite. He was lapsing into something she jokingly called his "battle numbness." "This must be the gem fusion, Malachite, the Crystal Gems told me about. She can control water and is most definitely responsible for the acidic properties of the water right now." He spoke decisively and quietly, then whipped one of the two short hammers in his hands at the hulking gem. The hammer spun through the air and cracked against her shoulder. Once it hit, however, it exploded into huge shards of ice, locking her arm painfully in place at the shoulder. Malachite's howls of laughter turned into screams of pain and growls of anger.

"Who are you!? You think you can stop me? YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME!? AAARGH! Not before I KILL YOU!" Malachite raised her other arm, creating a tidal wave of murky green water. "Kunzite, get the others. Hurry!" With that Kyanite tore through the sand, leaping up to the giant's face. Faster than he'd expected, she swatted him back down to earth. The water crashed down safely to the ground again from the distraction. He skidded back and jumped back to dodge a second attack as Malachite broke through the shards of ice. The water suddenly and quickly rushed forward. Malachite's growling echoed the roaring tide as it surged for Kyanite. "Kyanite! We have a problem!" Out of the corner of his eye, Kyanite could make out two figures, a pink one and a shorter reddish one. He brought his hammers together, resounding a deafening crack. Light seeped from the hammers and a massive sheet of clean bluish ice spread out in front of, and around, the three of them. The colossal flood crashed against the wall of ice, helplessly splashing off.

"Kyanite! What's Malachite doing here!?" Kyanite turned on his heel at the child, "I don't know, you tell me! She just popped up out of nowhere and interrupted a perfectly fine existential crisis that I was kinda hoping I could have reso-UGH!" A large green hand punched through the ice wall and snatched Kyanite out. "Aaargh! Kunzite, change of plans! Get Steven out of here!"

Kunzite reached down to grab Steven's hand and made to run back to the beach house. "You heard'er, we need to go!" Steven pulled back and dug his feet into the sand. "Go where!? She can control the entire ocean and we're on a beach! We need to help Kyanite! The gems will notice the giant green fusion fighting us! There is no other choice! Kyanite needs us!" Kunzite looked down at him, back at the beach house, and then at Malachite, who was holding Kyanite dangerously close to her face. She groaned and summoned a second sword from the circular gem in the middle of her collar. "Fine! But we need to be careful about this. What can you do, exactly?"

Malachite held the blue gem close to her face. "You. They don't know you. You're not important to them. You don't matter. You can die fast." Kyanite struggled futilely against her grip. "Quit embarassing yourself! You'll never break free! You, like me, are a prisoner! Succumb to your fate!" Kyanite's eye and gem began to glow a bright blue, and he slowly started to force Malachite's fingers apart. "I succumb to no one!" Malachite smiled grimly. "Your funeral, fool." A surge of water tore through the cracks between her fingers and ripped Kyanite from her grasp, sending him careening into and through his own ice barrier.

Steven and Kunzite stared in mute horror as Kyanite's body slowly melted under the green fluid. Steven pushed past Kunzite and plucked Kyanite's gem from the dissolving mass. He could feel the residue of the acid eating away at his fingers, down to the bone. He looked up at Kunzite in absolute terror, but was shocked to see her looking determinedly at the hulking giant before them. The ice wall had lost it's blue tint and began to crumble as though it were regular ice now. "Don't look at me like that kid. Find your resolve. We can still do this. You're a healer, yeah? That's what Rose Quartz's special ability was, healing I mean. You've healed him before, and we can't do this without him since the others aren't here yet. I'll hold her off, just make sure you two stay safe! Alright? Can you promise me that?" Steven could feel his hands going numb, but something about the warmth in her smile seemed to reassure him. This was by no means a normal occurrence, but she was right. he'd healed him before, he could do it again. Kunzite nodded and hopped over their fallen barricade. "ALright, Malachite! I'm your opponent now! I'm sure you'll find me a lot harder to hit than Kyanite!"

"I don't want you! They don't care about you! They don't know you!" Kunzite placed a hand over her chest and faked a pout. "Oh! You hurt my feelings! What, they not teach you manners at the bottom of the sea?" She spat the last words in a mix between mocking and condescension. Malachite growled and slammed her fists into the sand on either side of Kunzite, leaving her face just hovering out of reach. "SHUT UP!" Large waves began to rush upon the shoreline. Kunzite sliced through the tide, gracefully breaking the flow and further protecting Steven and Kyanite. With each blast of water that she blocked she was forced back into the beach and malachite edged ever closer, gaining more and more advantage.

Kunzite soon founder herself backed against the broken ice wall. She looked back to see Steven hovering over Kyanite's gem with his back turned. He was shaking and seemed to be losing color, but she turned back and knocked another wave back. Her swords were starting to dissolve, themselves. "You're finished!" Kunzite swallowed hard and forced a laugh, "Not just yet, I'm not! Take your best shot" A stream of water jolted forward, shooting straight for Kunzite. In one fluid movement, she jumped behind the wall, grabbed Steven, and wrapped the two of them in pink light. Steven let out a shrill yelp. When he could see again, they were in a different spot on the beach, not far from their previous location. He felt Kunzite let go of him, and heard her stagger in the sand. "That took a lot out of me, kid. I protected you, it's time for you to return the favor for a second. Malachite's going to see us, and Kyanite's still not up. We just need to hold out for a little longer. She always regenerated fast."

They both returned their collective gazes to Malachite, who was already sending another torrent jetting across the beach. Steven jumped in front of Kunzite and created a large shield, surrounded by a bubble, protecting Kunzite and Kyanite's invalid gem. "Ah! Okay! I don't know how long I can keep this u- whoa…" Steven looked back and saw Kyanite's gem rise into the air, bathing the pink bubble in bluish light. Kunzite almost bounced in excitement. "She's coming back. She's coming back!" They watched as Kyanite's previously rough edges turned smoothe, into curves. Their hair fell down to their neck, the wound itself into a tight bun with two bangs framing their face. Kyanite fell to her knees and breathed deeply before opening her eyes. "That…" She turned to look at Kunzite and Steven. "Was not fun." A voice that had prefiously been slightly more masculine had shifted into a softer, but more cold feminine tone.

Kunzite jumped up and buzzed with energy. She took Kyanite's hands in hers, but forced herself to calm down. "Okay, Kyanite. I'm glad you're okay and all, but we still have a huge problem." Kyanite looked over her shoulder at the giant edging ever closer to them. "I can see that." Kunzite shook her head. "There's only one way we can beat her. We need Morganite." Kyanite slowly took her hands back and gave Kunzite a skeptical look. "I can't do that." Kunzite paused and made a few inaudible sounds. "Whatya mean you can't!?" She near shrieked. Steven looked back again and said, between grunts, "Y-yeah! We already tried to s-see if he could fuse! With some of the gems!" Kunzite smacked her forehead. "Of course you can't fuse with them! They don't know how you work! You're all messed up in your gem! You can only fuse when you finish your dance with a kiss for some stupid reason! It's the only reason we had so much trouble fusing into Morganite when you were on Homeworld!" Kyanite now had her arms folded over her chest. "I… cannot believe that." Kunzite stomped and held out her hand. "You can't afford the time to."

Kunzite lifted her right leg gracefully up and held her arms out in front of her, balancing on the tip of her left foot. Kyanite brought her feet together and clasped her hands over her chest. "Ah, you remember how we begin." Kyanite knit her brow. "I've got bits an' pieces. I remember enough." Kunzite slowly dipped down to her left leg, while raising her right straight into the air. She neatly brought herself up, letting her leg mirror her ascent and drop down and bend against her left. Kyanite held her arms outstretched in front of her, palms open, then traced her left leg back over the sand. She pulled her arms back angularly and turned with them, stopping short, almost robotically. With one arm over the other, she slowly brought her right arm, which was at the bottom, through a large circular motion over her head and halting in front of Kunzite, followed by her left foot and arm, falling back in their uniform position tightly at her side. Kunzite brought her left arm to her chest, and moved her right to take Kyanite's hand. Together, they moved closer to each other; Kyanite stepping with Kunzite's motion, giving her balance, and Kunzite spinning lightly with Kyanite's hand. They finished their dance with Kunzite in Kyanite's arm. Kunzite slowly took her hand from her counterpart's firm grasp, letting it trace her frame as it came to the small bun of blue hair. They shared a single moment of blissfully nostalgic silence before Kunzite brought the taller gem down into a quick, humble kiss.

The bubble was quickly filled with a mix of pink and blue light, near blinding Steven, even from behind. Their bodies combined into a being only a head taller than Opal with two sets of arms. "G-guys…?" Steven looked warily behind himself and barely caught a glimpse of the tall lavender skinned woman he now shared space with before they both heard an abrupt crack from the shield. "Oh no, Steven!" The woman breathed the words; a light, airy sound. Quickly, after the shield broke under Malachite's large fists, she scooped up the child and twisted impossibly around the assault. Malachite growled at her new opponent and sent another fist flying. The new fusion ducked the punch and bolted across the beach, barely outrunning darts of acid coming for her. It was barely a few seconds before she was surrounded by water. The explosion was massive and Malachite grinned. However, her grin turned into an infuriated scowl as the dust cleared to reveal no trace of her. The woman in question appeared in a blink of light some distance down the beach from Malachite.

She lifted Steven from her chest to her head. Steven finally had a chance to get a look at her. Her hair, and she had a lot of it, was held out of her face in a large ponytail. Her skin was a light purple, a shade duskier than her hair. She had one pink eye, her left, next to Kyanite's gem, which was now also that similar shade of purple. She wore a black tunic under a lavender coat, with black leggings and, oddly enough, no shoes. Steven was awed at the sight of her, finding himself at a lack of words. "I don't know what's going on here, nor do I know where I am, but I know that they need me and I know that they seem to like you a lot." Her voice was as soft as silk and flowed as smoothly as oil. She held all four hands over the gem on her chest and a long grip to a sword began to slide out. She pulled the an extremely long and thick broadsword out of the gem with two of her hands and ran the other two across the blade. The blade began to glow purple and hum softly but ominously. "And that is all I need to know. Hold on tight, little one." Steven absentmindedly gripped into the bush atop her head. She knelt down, getting ready to make for her enemy. "I'm Morganite, by the way."

Morganite strode through the sand with refined grace, jumping over and ducking streams of water. "You think you've won because you fused! You can't beat me! I'M A MONSTER!" Morganite swung the sword with surprising ease, making broad, quick sweeps that Malachite couldn't risk taking head on. This opened her up to being struck by Morganite's free hands. With each swing, Morganite spun and ducked or sidestepped, easily dodging Malachite's few desperate attacks. Morganite made one final upward strike, knocking Malachite's hands in the air and breaking her focus and control on the water around them. "It's over!" She yelled as she impaled the larger gem. Malachite hunched over the smaller gem, her eyes wide with shock. Her mouth hung slack, then drew into a hard line. Morganite shuddered at her face when she looked up. Malachite's face broke into an insane, toothy smile and she began to laugh monstrously. Acid began to seep from her mouth and the hole at her core. Steven created a bubble around her head and Morganite quickly retreated back.

The acid corroded the shield around them, leaving them defenseless for the moment, but they were far enough that they had time to prepare for a second attack. "What are you…?" Malachite's laughter ebbed and she shouted, "I ALREADY TOLD YOU! I'M A MONSTER!" She raised her hand over the ocean, drawing an enormous wave. The water's rising alone whipped the wind around them, betraying the sheer size and strength of the wave. Morganite and Steven looked on in utter terror at the rising tsunami of sickly acid. "AND IF I'M GOING DOWN, THEN I'M TAKING THIS WRETCHED, DISGUSTING PLACE DOWN WITH ME!" Steven patted Morganite's head, "Wh-what're we gonna d-do?" Morganite stood up straight and held her sword in front of her face, broadside facing her. "What we must, Steven. We cannot risk that wave hitting Beach City, and we don't have time to stall for the others. We will defeat Malachite, here," She reared back and threw her sword straight for Malachite. "And now." The sword whizzed past the giant, barely missing her neck and zooming into the water behind her. "YOU MISSED, YOU FOOL!" Morganite scoffed. "Idiot." she mumbled.

Malachite felt the air behind her get colder and turned her head in disbelief. The wave she had just amassed had become a massive block of grey ice. "W-what?" She stuttered. Malachite turned her head and met with the hard crack of Morganite's fist. She turned back quickly, trying to land a blow on her much faster opponent. "Stop… moving.. SO MUCH!" Morganite laughed abruptly, ducked a punch, and swept under Malachite's legs. Malachite near collapsed under her own weight, grunting angrily at having to catch herself. Morganite kicked off of the larger gem's chest, forcing her down onto the sand. The force of the kick caused her to sail back through the air. When she landed, she placed Steven down from her head. "Alright, little one. Stay safe. I will finish this." Steven nodded, "Please don't hurt them. They're not in control of their own actions anymore. They've can't fight her anymore."

Morganite nodded solemnly and sprinted down the beach again. Halfway to Malachite, she jumped into the air. Steven followed her, protecting his eyes from the sun with his hand. He could barely make out a light purple explosion of light and a faint yell. He could see her falling back to Earth covered in a powerful purple light. The wind around him whipped furiously. It felt unnaturally cold. Malachite was struggling to get herself back on her legs. He could tell from the speeds Morganite was falling that the impact would be intense. "Steven!" He heard a familiar voice from behind him call. Steven turned and saw Connie not far up the beach. He looked back and saw Morganite getting close to impact. "CONNIE! GET OVER HERE! HURRY!" Connie ran a fast as she could through the billowing wind. Steven barely had a second to spare before Morganite slammed into Malachite to raise a shield large enough for them both. He held her close as sand, wind, and pink light tore past them.

As the wind died down and the dust cleared, Steven let his shield down and warily let go of Connie. "Are-are you okay?" Connie looked on in awe. "Who was that? Who were both of them!?" Steven scratched his head, "Oh, right, you've never met any of those guys, have you. Well, I'll explain later. I need to make sure they're all okay." Steven ran up the beach toward the cloud of dust that was settling at the edge of the ocean. He was relieved to see the original sickly green color had returned to a more crisp, clean sky blue. The dust finally settled and revealed Kyanite standing over the large body of Jasper. She was hunched over on her hands and knees. Kunzite was next to the blue body of Lapis, who made no attempt at moving. Her body was limp, face down on the sand. Steven could barely make out Jasper talking to Kyanite.

"I should have known. No other gem has that kind of an ability. I should have known it would be you." Jasper's coarse voice grated against Kyanite's ears. She could feel heat rising to her face. "You know about me?" Jasper laughed wickedly. "I KNEW about you. Everyone high up in the ranks heard about Pink Diamond's little pet gem." She spat the words out like rotten meat. Kyanite's eyes began to glow. "What?" She growled. "Kyanite, ignore her!" Kunzite pleaded. "Ignore me? What, does she not know? Does the little monstrosity not remember?" Jasper forced herself up, despite obviously being weakened from the forceful unfusion. "Ha! All those years of experimentation and planning! You know, you were the first gem to be unnaturally corrupted and ultimately you were the first gem made specifically to be a guard for the diamonds! You had so much potential, but you just had to grow a mind of your own. I guess it only figures that you had your mind had to be wiped! I can only imagine what someone like you would do with the full knowledge of what you've done and what you've been through." Kyanite stepped back from the taller gem. "Poor little Kyanite. All lost and forgotten by the ones who made her. Now she's a traitor to those she was charged to defend. I'm sure this would be poetic to someone, but it just makes me sick! You're a waste of potential and a waste of time at best."

Kyanite let of a near animalistic growl and summoned her weapon. Her eyes began to glow, betraying her rage state. Jasper grinned and summoned her crash helmet as well. Just as Kyanite made to swing at her, she felt a strong resistance preventing her attack. Kyanite looked back and came face to face with a tall tan girl with long, curly black hair. The light faded from her eyes at the sight. "St-steven…?" She muttered. Jasper grunted, "Never take your eyes off of your enemy!" She pulled back her large fist, but before she could let it fly a sharp pain course through her body. A pink blur suddenly invaded her vision. She barely made out the figure of Kunzite before she had to return to her gem, "Damn you…" A poof of smoke left Jasper's small orange gem lying in the sand.

"The name's actually 'Stevonnie,' but that's neither here nor there. I just needed to keep you from making a horrible mistake." Kyanite let her hammer fall slack from her grip. "I… I just…" Stevonnie's body lit up and split back into Steven and Connie. Steven held Kyanite's hand. "So, is that the benefit of being a human-gem hybrid?" Kunzite asked playfully, over Kyanite's shoulder. Steven chuckled, "I don't know, but it's pretty cool! It just makes me a little more special, I guess. This is Connie, my best friend! I've been telling her about Kyanite for weeks, but this is her first time seeing you! In fact this is her first time seeing any of you. Even-" Steven jumped. "LAPIS!" He rushed over to the blue gem. She groaned at her name and tried to push herself up. Steven made to help her up, aided by Connie. "Wait, Lapis? Lapis Lazuli? The gem who stole the ocean and tried to drown us and beat up the Crystal Gems!?" Steven laughed sheepishly, "Th-that's the one!"

Lapis rose to her knees. "Ung… Steven? You broke up Malachite… What happened to Jasper?" Kunzite held up her gem. "She'll be doing very little harm for now. Just relax. you're fine, now." Lapis sighed, "I'm sorry about all of the trouble I've caused you, Steven. It's just that, my entire world's changed and I was powerless to do anything about it. I've been such a fool…" Steven took Lapis's hands. "Come on! No! It's not your fault! You were trying to help us in the end! Besides, we're still beach summer fun buddies!" Lapis laughed weakly and smiled. "Thanks, Steven. I think I'm good to stand now." Steven and Connie helped her to her feet, then turned at the sound of feet on sand. "Steven!" Came Pearl's ever worried voice. They could see Garnet, Pearl, and Spinel dashing through the sand. Lapis visibly tensed upon seeing them. "I think that's my cue to leave." Steven gripped Lapis's hand tightly, then let it slip from his grasp. "Will you come back sometime?" Lapis turned and smiled, "For you? Of course, Steven. I don't know where I'll go, but I can tell I won't be welcomed here." Her wings spread and the sound of footsteps getting closer, the ocean gem took off through the waves.

"Steven, was that Lapis!? I thought she was at the bottom of the sea!" Pearl's shrill voice carried over the sound of the waves. Steven simply shrugged and looked to Kunzite, "I guess Malachite finally got a mind of her own. It just… wasn't a healthy mind." Connie stepped forward. "When did you guys figure out something was wrong?" Garnet watched Lapis fly off until she disappeared from sight, "We saw the water surrounding the island being sucked toward Beach City's direction. It was clear Malachite was rising up. We should just be happy with what we got out of it. Malachite is gone, Lapis is… unsure, but free, and Jasper. Where is she?" Kunzite handed over the diamond shaped gem to Garnet. "Here she is. Caused us a lot of trouble, too." She grabbed Kyanite's hip and pulled her to her side. Garnet nodded slightly. "That's one down, then." She sighed and bubbled the gem. After sending it away she turned to Connie. "Well, it's been a while since we've last seen you. Pearl's missed practicing your sword fighting. That, and we've got plenty of new faces to introduce. This busy day keep getting busier." Through the words, her joking tone could be heard. Connie and Steven smiled at each other and followed Garnet back to the beach house. "Oh you are going to love Kyanite! He-" Steven looked at Kyanite for a second. "She has all these awesome powers! And we can learn all the others' powers together! This's gonna be awesome!"


	8. Twice Damned (cut-off chapter)

**YAY! Spinel tells Amethyst a tale after hearing about her. This story takes place, obviously, during the rebellion, but it's just a retelling from Spinel to Amethyst while they sit. This takes place just after Steven leaves to go find Kyanite and Kunzite, but before they go to Mask Island to show him around and before Malachite comes up and gets her shit slapped. So, having explained that, read Spinel's sad, but confusing, story.**

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"Come on Spinel, you've gotta show us that move again! I know I'm getting it down, I just gotta see it again!" Spinel brought a hand to his chin in thought. He hummed softly to himself as he considered the short gem before him. He was surrounded by three gems, in fact, as he walked along the pink corridor, but only one was pestering him about his fighting style. "Hmm. I don't know, Red. Could be dangerous for someone of your size. It's really meant to handle larger gems with their gems out in the open anyway, so there's no way for me to REALLY show it off, y'know? I guess you're just out of lu-" A crash resounded from ahead. The din echoed through the hall, bouncing from wall to wall around them. Spinel looked on as he saw a tall black gem wielding a mace burst through the walls in front of them. The armored titan of a gem locked eyes with him and began her charge, flailing her weapon vigorously.

Ruby and Pearl stepped forward, "Aww yeah! Now this is what I'm talking about! It's about time we had some action he-" Spinel shot out a hand in front of his friends. Ruby looked up and saw his eyes hardened and his mouth tight in a line. Sapphire tugged on Ruby's arm, "Ruby… I don't like the look of this." Ruby grimaced. She looked back and Sapphire, then at Spinel. "We can help here! This shouldn't just be somethi-" "Ruby." The short red gem stopped suddenly at her name. She looked up at Spinel with worried eyes. The crushing footsteps were coming closer at an alarming rate. "Take Saph and find Rose . Pearl and I will hold this one off. She's strong, but not strong enough to hurt us. Just promise to hurry." Ruby nodded and turned, with Sapphire's hand in hers, to run back down the hall where they came. With that, he brought a hand to the back of his neck. Light shot out and encased his head, chest, and hands in soft pink armor. As well as the armor came a rod of light that he pulled out and elongated into the familiar shape of his five-pronged spear.

Pearl stayed behind him to fire bolts of light energy at the hulking black gem. The usually piercing arrows bounced cleanly off of the sides of the gem's black plated armor. Finally close enough, the black gem let out a battle shout and hoisted her mace up, beginning to swing down. The large rod struck down with stunning force. Force that pushed Pearl back. Force that Spinel caught with his spear's shaft head on. "Fortune would turn away from me and have me run into you, wouldn't it, Hotstepper?" The gravelly voice that the gem used betrayed no emotion except for contempt. She chuckled darkly. "You find humor in this?" Spinel twisted his spear in his hands, letting the mace fall heavily to the floor, cracking it easily. He brought up his foot to connect with her jaw and push her back. She grunted, but pushed forward. "You find humor in coming to your enemy's base?" The mace dropped a second time, which Spinel sidestepped easily. Again, he shot his foot through the air like a spear itself. This time the attack forced the gem onto her back and arrested the mace from her hands.

"You find humor in endangering your own life by facing me here? Return to where you came!" He pointed his spear at her, expecting her to turn tail and bolt for the hole from which she entered. Instead, he received laughter. Hoarse, gravely laughter. Spinel's glared at the gem. Pearl, who had resigned herself to watching, was starting to get nervous about this. "Spinel, what's going on here? What did she come for?" Spinel pressed the spear's head against her neck, inciting even more laughter. "I have no idea. Why? Why did you come here? You barely put up a fight!" She shot him a glare and scowled. "You have no idea. I'm done with this stupid war. I'm done with either side thinking they know what they're fighting for. I'm done with all these underhanded tactics. This isn't a war, this isn't even a battle. This is to see who can pussy foot around who the longest before the Diamond Authority finally finishes their little weapon to wipe you from existence." Spinel's grip loosened. His mouth hung slack. The black gem grabbed his spear quickly and pulled him down to her level, "So you know what? I'm done. Kill me." Spinel's breathing became heavy. His eyes went wide. The world around him seemed like it was shaking. "Kill me!" The black gem pushed him up, but he fell back on his knees. "Spinel!?" Pearl cried. The black gem tore her armor away, bearing her gem, and shouted one final time, "KILL ME-"

Spinel looked on as a pink sword pushed its way through the round black gem set in her chest. She smiled. Her body took on a more wavering form as light surrounded her. Everything slowly retreated into the black orb, until there was nothing left of her. Then the small gemstone cracked, shattered against the floor, with a sound that was deafening to Spinel. His eyes were still wide, and he no longer bore his armor or weapon. He looked vulnerable, young and scared. Rose stepped forward and held out a hand to him, which he slowly took. His legs were trembling, his hands shaking, as he forced himself up. "I heard her, Spinel. We need to find a way to end this war before that happens. I know how you feel, and I'm sorry. I don't ask much of you, but I am glad that you stayed. For now you should rest." Spinel nodded, unblinking. He slowly began his walk back down the hall in silence.

Ruby shook her head, "Is he all right? I've never seen him like that before." Rose watched him walk and responded, "You've never seen him at war or after a battle. Sadly, this will change soon." Ruby looked up at Rose, "What's his deal? He acts like he's never fought a gem before." Rose remained quiet until she saw Spinel round a corner, then held up her hand and started down the opposite direction of the hall. Ruby could tell she was going to give a bit more information on Spinel that she didn't want him to know she was giving. "On the contrary, Spinel is far older than any of you. He's fought and killed his own before, as was his job as a soldier of the Diamond Authority. He used to be a general, if I recall correctly. He has seen more death and destruction than I can hope to fathom. It has left him scarred and broken. He can't picture himself killing so he merely incapacitates his opponents. There have been times where he's killed in this war. You would remember them as the days where you hadn't seen him after battles. He only wants to live in peace now, but we are a warrior race. We can never be truly at peace. Especially now." Pearl, Sapphire, and Ruby held somber expressions. "What happens now, then?" Pearl whispered. Rose stopped at a window onlooking a field of grass under blue skies filled with white clouds. "Now we fight seriously. We can't afford to lose anymore. We must win this war, lest we lose everything I've worked for. I know that I'm asking a lot of you, but I have a vision for this planet. This will be a safe haven after the war. Believe in me and I will do everything I can to believe in you. That is all I ask."

Spinel bit his lip and fell to the cool floor. He pulled his knees to his chin and clasped his hands over his face. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he shook violently. After a few seconds, he looked up. His tear streaked cheeks and eyes a darker shade of red than before. He stood up and summoned his spear. The weight of the weapon felt like a mountain. The spear dissipated in a soft burst of light. Spinel turned down the hall and continued walking.

* * *

Swords. Fire. Clashing, crashing. Death and destruction. Spinel forced himself to push forward, striking down enemy after enemy. Anyone he didn't recognize was cut down, but never killed. He could see the Diamond's forces waning. They were winning. It was almost over. Spinel caught up to where Rose stood, peering over the field. Fires were raging and the clouds were black from both smoke and an oncoming storm. "We're doing it, Spinel! We're finally pushing them back! We may just win yet." Pearl ran to meet them, followed by Sapphire. Spinel noted the worried look on Sapphire's face. "We've finished up in our area. Our troops are also moving forward. They are retreating! Your plan was a brilliant success, Rose!" Pearl's emphatic voice filled the air, somehow drowning out the clashing of weapons. Rose smiled and took Pearl's hand, "My Pearl. I knew I could count on you. We have won this battle, tonight." Sapphire looked out onto the battlefield, worry streaking her usually flat face. "I haven't seen Ruby. She's still out the-" She stopped, letting out a sharp gasp. Quickly, Sapphire turned to Spinel. "Spinel! You need to find Ruby! Please! You're the only one fast enough to do so! If you don't get to her in time, then she'll-" Her words were halted by a choke.

Spinel's brow creased into a hard line and he dashed out into the battle again. He had no idea as to where Ruby could have been, but he would find her. That much he was certain of. Every turn he made crossed him with a new enemy that he didn't have time for, until he was deep in enemy lines. At some point he stopped seeing ally faces and could only make out enemy gems. "I don't have time for this!" He held out his spear toward the sky and waved it. The clouds above churned and circled, causing small streaks of lighting to form followed by loud rumbling. As he was surrounded a large ribbon of lightning shot down, bathing Spinel in bright light. The lighting surged out in an arc, launching his surrounding foes into the air. The air around him rippled as energy rushed through his body. Everything seemed to move slower for him. Suddenly, he heard a cry of anguish. His eyes shot over the desolate landscape and he made out a tall purple figure, bearing a large axe, and under them a small red figure with their arm over their face. "Ruby!"

Spinel sprinted across the field, far faster than he was before. Electricity crackle with his movements. Each step he took created a small crack, like the storm was following his footsteps. The purple gem heard the cracks and hesitated, looking up in time to see Spinel's knee connect with her forehead. She let out a loud yell and fell back a few feet, crashing to the ground. "Spinel! You saved me!" Spinel didn't turn, but fell into a boxing stance. "Ruby, you need to get out of here." "But-" "NOW!" He turned his head to look Ruby in her eyes and saw the adamance of her will. He sighed and looked back, only to get caught by the axe and sent flying. "Not so tough now, are ya? The Hotstepper's losing his touch!" She directed her gaze back onto Ruby. "Now, time to finish what you started." The axe head dropped into the ground where Ruby once stood. She scaled the axe handle and deftly hopped up to her face. She swung violently and landed two clean punches, which barely moved the gem's face. Ruby let out a cry when the larger gem grabbed her out of the air and slammed her into the ground again.

"I've had about enough of your games! It's time to die!" She reeled back the axe and began to bring it down. Another explosive crash resounded where Spinel stood as a second bolt came from the clouds. Time ran infinitely slower for him. He could see the axe inching its way towards his friend, the malice in the large gems eyes, the fear in Ruby's and the purple gem that was planted on the larger gem's throat, just barely sticking out from under her helmet. Fury blazed in Spinel's fists and fear fueled his legs. He was off.

A third booming crack resounded and the force that it let off whipped that air around them. Ruby hid her eyes behind her arm as the axe made its harrowing descent, but there was no strike. Instead she just barely made out the figure of Spinel, enveloped in electricity, kicking off of the ground above her, and smashing his fist through their assailant's gem with relative ease. The large gem's mouth fell open in shock, both figuratively and literally as electricity coursed through her body, shattering her armor, and disappearing as she would soon follow suit. Spinel fell to the ground in a heap. He made no effort to get up. Ruby ran to his side, awestruck and fearful. "Spinel! Are you okay!? I didn't even know you could DO that!? That was so awesome, you- ...Spinel?" His eyes were wide and his mouth was drawn in a tight line. She followed his stare and saw a shattered purple gemstone, broken into multiple tiny pieces, held loosely in his palm. "Ruby… I…" She looked around as the sound of footsteps became more apparent. He shook his head and forced himself to his knees. "You need to get out of here. Find Rose. I'll handle this." His voice was dead and his eyes obscured by the angle and dark clouds. She shook her head and began to run. "Good luck." She whispered.

Spinel stood up and looked at each of the gems surrounding him. Each one seemed like they didn't really want to fight him. They hesitantly shifted around, looking between themselves. Spinel scowled. "You have no conviction. I have no reason to hold back anymore. Whomever shall find me tonight will not find anything after our meeting." His fists clenched as streams of electricity ran up and down his arms and legs. His eyes were dark and dead now. There was no mercy in them at all. One by one, Spinel struck down his opponents. He gave no pause, pulled no punch, left no gem uncracked. He fought long and deep into the night, until the forces finally ebbed and turned. There was only one left. A slender and armored purple gem, about his height and build. She had long, dark hair that fell to her back and wore no helmet. Her chest piece also left her gem open to the world. It resided over her left breast, and was rounded and faceted beautifully. Spinel turned to look at her and his eyes slated. "This is my last battle, isn't it?"

The purple gem smiled, "Only if you want for it to be. You have an amazing fighting spirit. I can see so much more life left in you. I can also see just how much this bothers you. This war. The constant death and destruction. You don't really want to fight, Spinel." He growled at the use of his name. "You have no RIGHT! I left because I didn't agree with you! I still don't, but I don't agree with this! Why can't you just leave us be!? We don't want a war! I don't want a war… I just want to die, now." Spinel fell to his knees and clutched his head. "Purple Diamond. Tell me. Will you just kill me now? Kill me, so I can be free!" Her smile fell. "I cannot bring myself to do that. As I said, you have so much life left in you. Dearest Spinel, return to Homeworld. I cannot give you much, but the hope that you, and as many as you can bring, will be safe from the war. You may return, but we cannot forgive Rose Quartz for turning against us like she has. You may return to peace." She turned and walked back through the smoke from where she first came. "Run along now, dear Spinel."

* * *

"And you are sure that this is what you want? You are done?" Rose held her hands calmly clasped together where she sat. She looked Spinel in the eyes, which only succeeded in making him feel even worse inside, but he knew he could no longer stay. There was nothing for him to gain from remaining to fight. "I am sure, Rose. I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore. I just feel…" He touched on the gem on the back of his neck. "Hollow." Rose nodded and smiled, "It is quite alright. I never expected you to stay as long as you have. I thank you for everything you've done for me. Please, be safe, Spinel. Tell the others to be safe as well. We will never meet again, but let them know that my love is with them."

Spinel gulped and turned to exit. The door opened itself and time seemed to speed up until he was standing before a relatively small group of gems. Among them were some of the familiar faces he had fought with over the years. Some were coming with him to leave back to Homeworld. Others were there to shun or see them off. Each step he took felt weighted and impossible. "Spinel." He stopped. He turned to see Ruby and Sapphire standing. Waiting for him to say something to them. "Hey Red, Blue. How are ya?" Ruby's face scrunched up in anger and Sapphire held her arm. "How are we? That's all you're going to say to us!? How are we!? You're LEAVING Spinel!" Tears streamed down Ruby's face and she turned into Sapphire's shoulder. "You're returning to Homeworld, then?" Spinel nodded. "I see. I hope for the best for you. All of you." Ruby nodded from Sapphire's shoulder and grunted her agreement. Spinel made to turn around, but saw Pearl walking up to him from behind Ruby and Sapphire. "Pear-" He started, but couldn't finish as her fist met his mouth.

Spinel fell to the floor with a hard thud and sat there for a second. Pearl summoned her spear as tears rolled down her face. Ruby and Sapphire both had to hold her back and keep her away from Spinel. "YOU TRAITOR! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO TOLD US TO NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER LOSE HOPE! YOU TOLD US WHAT WE WERE FIGHTING FOR, AND NOW YOU'RE LEAVING!? WHAT KIND OF- of…" Her tears finally got the better of her and she crumple to the ground. "Pearl. I'm not fighting this war anymore. I just feel like we're going to be the losing side in the end. I don't want to live, but I don't want to die. If you were smart you'd leave, too. But you're young. You don't get it yet. What all this means. What all of this has done. What you're doing. You're blind to your emotions. I'm just… blind. I'm done guys. You'll never see me again, but I wish you the best of luck, and I hope that I was wrong." He stood up and turned to board the warp pad. Light encompassed his visage and he was lost to the gems he once called friends and dead to the world he once loved and fought for.

* * *

**yay! Spinel's a sadboy! He's really just tired of fighting for lost causes, which I could have gotten into here, but will get into later because fuck you. jkilubby. No, but, Spinel's about as old as, if not older than, Rose Quartz and has seen, done, and lived through sum shit. Cut him some slack. He's just done with killing and fighting. At least he was, before he had to learn how to get over that to work for Almandine. Homeworld doesn't like slackers. Thank you all for reading!**


	9. Restructure

**I'm just getting all kinds of chapters done today! I wonder if I can get that one Sin and Harmony chapter about Amethyst and Pearl done tonight after work... Either way, I do hope you guys enjoy this chapter! It took me, as you guys can see, forever to finish it, and while it is not the longest chapter, it is one of the ones that ties things together the most! It also hints at some stuff in the future! I also feel like I should say that this is definitely and always was planned to be an AU to Steven Universe! Nothing in this is anything NEAR what the current canon for the show is! Please keep that in mind while reading! Anyway, that's all I've got to say! Please enjoy and leave me a review! It means the world and more to me to read reviews!**

* * *

"So that was Morganite? And you two are Kyanite and Kunzite? I've never seen a fusion before! I never thought it would look so cool!" Connie thought for a second before continuing. "I've only ever been a part of a fusion. I've never even gotten to see a fusion dance." Spinel raised an eyebrow. "Part of a fusion? You're a human, though. I'd never have thought that would work between a gem and a human." Garnet unconsciously smiled. "Well, when Steven and I dance we can fuse to become Stevonnie! We had to earlier to stop Kyanite from hurting Jasper, too!"

Spinel clicked his tongue. "And to think I'd missed it. Maybe I should have rushed here." He looked down at Connie. "You're a little less fazed about all this than I'd have thought a human your age would be. Does this happen to you often?" Connie shook her head, "No, I usually get the play by play from Steven. I don't live very near here so I get left out of a lot of the crazy things that happen, but I wish I could be! All of your lives are so amazing and wonderful! I can only imagine the awesome adventures you've had."

Spinel's eyes thinned and he looked ahead toward the beach house. "Trust me, you don't want to imagine the things we've done." There was a second of silence as Connie shrank back next to Steven, feeling as though she'd crossed some line. Kunzite scoffed, "Speak for yourself, Spinel. I, for one, feel very accomplished with myself and the things you've done, and as such I feel like she should look up to you."

Spinel threw a dubious glance over his shoulder. "Is that so?" Pearl rolled her eyes and sighed, "Here we go…" Spinel shrugged. "I guess I can see your point. I am pretty great. It's hard to not be impressed with my magnificence, isn't it? I mean, no other gem is like me. I'm the last of my kind and the last that can do what I can do. I truly am a sight to behold!" When he finished, Spinel made extra effort to pose as dramatically as possible.

Garnet lightly pushed Spinel along, "Alright, that's enough out of you." Spinel laughed while staggering. "For now!"

They kept pace, laughing and joking along, until they reached the stairs to the beach house. As they neared the door, a cacophony of yelling. Garnet opened the door and saw Amethyst standing on the couch with Beryl and Onyx standing across the room from her, the latter of which looking increasingly agitated. They all looked to the door, staring at Garnet as she silently entered the room.

Beryl broke the silence, "Ah. She'll fix this issue. Onyx. Take it up with her." Onyx smoother herself out and stood straight. She cleared her throat and made to speak, but was cut off by Amethyst, "Oh no! There is no way this is going to fly! Do you know how hard it was to even catch those gems in the first place!? Do you even realize what we've got to deal with besides the corrupted gems already running wild!? Garnet, you-" "Amethyst." Garnet interrupted her. Steven and Connie remained outside of the door, waiting hesitantly behind. "It's been a long day, and Steven's probably hungry. Why don't you take him and Connie somewhere to eat for a bit."

Amethyst stared up at Garnet with unsure eyes, but stepped down from the couch. She looked at Steven and Connie and forced a clearly fake smile, "Alright guys, let's take a walk!" The two preteens passed quick glances between each other, but nodded anyway. The three of them pushed past Kyanite, Kunzite, and Spinel to make their way down the beach front.

The door closed behind them, leading Garnet to turn her attention back towards Onyx. "What's this about, then?" Onyx feigned a smile and spoke softly, "Garnet. Homeworld- no, the Diamonds- have slighted us; each of us here has a reason, and a very good one at that, to despise them. Yet tell me why do you not see the opportunity at revenge that you have before you!?" Garnet shifted herself, changing her stance from leisurely leaning towards her left side to standing full at attention. She was a lot taller than Onyx remembered. She cleared her throat.

"You're Rose can heal the gems that you've collected, the proof is in Kyanite here. You have two homeworld gems that work directly for a diamond trapped here on your planet, one of which has become your prisoner! You have access to their damned experiments and what's more you have access to their kindergarten! You're holding the cards in your hands but refuse to play anything! I'd bet that that other gem trapped here has some way of contacting her diamond! You could have her down here and in a trap laid by a small army of gems and yet you choose not to! Why!?"

Silence hung in the air like a low hanging fog, somehow blocking everyone in the room from reading the other's thoughts and emotions. Onyx's heavy words imprinted on each of them and they considered her carefully. Kyanite held tight to Kunzite's hand without thinking. In turn, Kunzite looked to see Kyanite's face knit into an unrecognizably cold anger. Spinel's eyes darted between Garnet and Onyx. Garnet held out her hand, beginning to make her own case.

"We can't afford to take that risk. If we could count on the fact that every corrupted gem that we find is one of us, then there would be less of a problem, but we can't. Kyanite was on the side of the Diamond Authority. It is sheerly by luck that Steven could heal their memories, let alone their gem. If we were to have any more homeworld gems on our hands there's no telling whether or not they would even help us!"

Onyx began to lose her temper. "Rose was a leader, was she not!? She clearly was a great one to have convinced such a strong force to come to her aid against the Diamond Authority! Can she not do it agai-" Garnet growled, "Rose is gone, Onyx! Steven isn't ready to lead a force that large! He's not prepared or trained in the slightest for what we might face!"

Silence washed over the room again. Garnet nudged her glasses up. "There are leagues of difference between the feral instinct in a corrupted gem's mind and the skill of a true gem. Steven knows how to use his shield and make basic combat strategies, but he'll stand no chance against a real opponent. Same goes for Connie. She's been training for combat with Pearl for the last few months, but even she's just a human. She'll be easily overpowered by a gem in combat. They stand no chance, and we stand no chance against a diamond. That is why we cannot risk their finding us."

Beryl sighed, "But you know that is not far to come. We think very similarly, Garnet. Surely you have the foresight to know what's coming." Garnet pulled her glasses off, revealing a somber, broken visage. "More than you realize." Beryl's eyes widened under her bangs from seeing her third eye for a second before regaining her stoic demeanor.

Spinel stepped forward. "Then we train them." Pearl, who had up to this point been standing to the side, piped up, "What do you mean train them? We've been training them! The problem is that it won't be enough, no matter what! They're bound by their mortality and frailty!" This time it was Kyanite's turn to chip in, "But they aren't! I was lost to my rage earlier when we broke that fusion. You've seen me when it takes over, I'm way stronger because of it, but they stopped me dead in my tracks. I was about to waste Jasper right then and there, but their fusion met my strength. They have what it takes to face any opponent when they're fused, I'm sure of that much."

Spinel laughed and tossed his arms out, "Then we train them, and by extension their fusion!" Garnet growled, "It's not that simple! They're too young and too-" "Human?" Beryl spoke up, now. "Frail? Weak? Impulsive? Mortal? Take a look around you. That defines each of us. We are all weak, frail, mortal, bound to our impulses, as much as any human on this planet. They are no different from us, save for a few anatomical differences and a less regenerative body. We are as susceptible to death as they are. We have as much to lose as they."

Garnet bit her lip. She knew what she was coming up to. Beryl stepped past her and pointed at the window. "Do you know what position we're in? They've got their damned experiments on this planet. They have their agents here as well and one runs rampant, yet. That means loose ends, Garnet. Loose ends on a damned planet that should have been empty in the first place. If there is anything that the Diamonds despise it is inefficiency and loose ends. There is no way we're getting out of this. Either we're ALL ready for what is to come or we ALL perish." Beryl turned and met Garnet face to face. "Surely you realize this. We're walking a very narrow path set out before us and there is no way out of this."

Garnet tightened her frown into a thin line, pushed up her glasses, and sighed. "We can only prepare at this point." Pearl dropped onto the couch. "Is this the only way we can win, Garnet?" Garnet looked to the ceiling and frowned, "I don't know. There are too many things that can happen. For now, only time can tell."

Steven, Connie, and Amethyst stepped away from the door. Amethyst sat against the railing of the porch while Connie looked to Steven, who's face was both hard and terrified. "What do they mean, Steven? What's going on?" Amethyst frowned. "I don't know, Connie. They never said anything to me, but whatever it is, it's not good." Amethyst scoffed, "Oh it's not good alright. Homeworld found us out. Or they're on the verge of finding us out. Either way, it's not good at all."

Steven looked confused. "But we already knew they found us! Jasper and Peridot-" "Aren't what I'm talking about. The big bads on Homeworld are finding out about us, Steven, and when they come It's game over!" She turned her back to them, "For all of us."

Connie stepped forward, "No! You heard them! We're strong enough to fight together! We can fight them!" She looked back at her friend. "Right?" Steven, who had until then looked fearful, smiled determinedly. "Yeah! There's no way we'll let them beat us!" Amethyst chuckled and jumped down to them, taking them into a big hug. "I wish I could be as tough as you guys are. That'd make life a whole lot easier."

Light burst through the windows, bathing the porch in a sudden eerie glow. The voices inside died down, and they cracked open the door to peek inside once more. In the middle of the room was a glowing puppet-like figure suspended in mid-air, surrounded by a pale green light, and slowly shifting through various forms. In the mouth of the head rested the small green gem that Beryl asked Amethyst to hold on to. "Ah, here she comes." Beryl whispered. Onyx gave an exasperated sigh and placed a hand on her forehead. "I was hoping I had a little more time before my headache came back…"

The form solidified into a lithe feminine figure with pale green skin and verdant hair that fell to her lower back. She was clad in a short sleeved lavender shirt that barely sat over her navel and blue-green form fitting pants. Her shirt hung loosely over her shoulders and left very little to the imagination as far as coverage went. Finally, her hair lifted and tied itself up into a messy ponytail.

She gently fell to the floorboards, feet bare and eyes closed on her serene visage. Beryl spoke again, "Welcome back. That took you longer than it usually does." She stepped around, inspecting her new body. "Why the change, T?" Beryl's tone changed itself entirely when she spoke to her. Tourmaline tutted, "Ah, ah, ah! No touching the goods!" She crossed her arms. "I took so long because I felt like it. I didn't wanna wear a diamond brand for the rest of my life now that I've got it to myself so I gave myself my own look!"

"Oh!" She jumped, just then realizing that they were no longer in the forest next to their crashed ship. She stopped looking around once she caught sight of Garnet and Pearl and began to glare. "Okay, which one of you skewered me! That was entirely uncalled fo-" She was about to continue, but she became distracted for a second time as she saw something glint from the crack in the door. Amethyst, Steven, and Connie gasped and fell back as she ran to the door and pushed it open.

Tourmaline stared down at Steven and Connie in awe. Steven raised his hand sheepishly and whimpered, "H-hi?" She squealed and picked them both up. "Humans! They look so-" She stopped again, this time her gaze was pointed out toward the sea. The moon and stars were shining brightly over the rich, navy waves. She stood, breathlessly lost in the wide world before her. Steven pried himself free from her hold and pulled Connie away as well. "Are… are you okay?"

Tourmaline's eyes watered, but she nodded. "I'm fine." She wiped her eyes and leaned over the handrail. "I'm home." Onyx stepped outside. "You may be home, but don't get too comfortable. We still have a lot of problems and a lot of work to do." Tourmaline turned around and seemed offended. "Work? But we escaped. We got away!" Onyx stepped forward, "But we're not free!"

Tourmaline made to get in Onyx's face, but Beryl pressed a hand against her stomach. "Tourmaline, Onyx has nothing to do with this." Tourmaline took a step back, disbelief burning across her face. "B-but-" "Yellow Diamond already sent a patrol here to continue unfinished business from before the war." She looked from Beryl to Onyx. Onyx hung her head. "There was no way for us to know. We had no chance of getting away from them right from the start, and now Almandine is-" She stopped herself. Tourmaline shook her head, slowly at first, but gaining speed. "No… no, no NO! NO, we made it OFF of Homeworld! There's no way they caught us that fast! Have these… Homeworlders alerted The Diamonds!?" The way she spoke the word "homeworlders" was laced in every bit of disgust as she could manage.

Garnet stepped outside at this point. "We have reason to hope that they haven't, but one of them has tried. A Peridot. We've already apprehended her body guard. Although, assuming that Yellow Diamond was alerted by this Peridot, we can either hope that this mission wasn't important enough for her to grace us with her presence or prepare ourselves for the worst." Tourmaline eyes darted frantically searching for some sign of jest between them.

However, finding none, her shoulder slumped. She cracked a rueful smile and began to laugh darkly. "Well, I guess that's that then, huh? All that for nothing. You know, I don't know why I let myself think for a second that things could get better. Almandine made it sound so good, too." Onyx knit her brow in irritation. "You're blowing this out of proportion. We're not going to have done all this in vain, because for once we're taking a page out of your book." Tourmaline looked shocked.

Her sad grin turned into a devious smirk. "So you're finally seeing things my way, huh? What, you plan to fight them or something? Is Onyx, the most loyal gem in all of creation, gonna rebel against the mighty and powerful Diamond Authority that she loves so much?" She turned her back to Onyx. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're horribly outmatched and we don't have an army to even scratch theirs."

Onyx looked to Garnet. Garnet sighed and pulled her glasses off, "I'd have prefered to keep Steven out of this, but I guess I have no choice in the matter. This now concerns us all. The only thing is, we have no real idea what we're up against. You're all our only idea as to what they have and what they'll do." Connie cleared her throat, bringing all eyes on her. She eeped in surprise from the sudden attention, but managed to stutter out, "W-well, we st-still have that other gem from earlier! We c-could interrogate her or something."

Tourmaline clapped her hands together and hopped from foot to foot. "Oh oh! Can I do it!? I'm really good at interrogating. They always think I'm weak and frail and I'll hurt myself because I'm a Tourmaline, but then I give them a taste of their own medicine!" Steven, puzzled, looked up to Pearl for clarification. "What's a Tourmaline do?" Pearl pointedly stated, "A Tourmaline is a gem used as a battle medic, as they can give their own stability to reinforce another gem's body and/or gem. Of course, this is bad for the Tourmaline as they become weaker and weaker from use and do not have the capability to heal themselves how they do others. This means they-" "THEY HURT THEMSELVES BY HEALING PEOPLE!?" Steven shouted.

Tourmaline smirked, "Yeah, that's the life of a Tourmaline alright. But I'm far more than a Tourmaline. See, I was the FIRST Tourmaline, and I got out a taaaad earlier than the others. S'why I'm so awesome." Beryl spoke out, "Actually, it's why she refuses to follow orders most of the time. It's the reason for a lot of her personality, actually. Tourmaline's are usually fearful, obedient, and mild mannered gems." Tourmaline scowled and puffed out her cheeks. "But it also means she can do things others can't. She can draw light from outside of her body to heal other gems, and, while this still puts strain on her gem, it's not nearly as bad for her as it is for other Tourmalines. She can also use this light to create extraordinary bursts of highly concentrated light. She's truly a force to be reckoned with."

"Ah, dear Beryl! You're forgetting the best part about my special case!" She knelt down to Steven. "The real secret to my power is that I can heal myself!" She broke out into a haughty laugh. Onyx rolled her eyes. "I defy another gem to try to take me on in a fair fight! They'd be hard pressed to actually get any damage to stick!" Spinel scoffed. "You're still a Tourmaline. You break too easily for that kind of risk. The gem they caught was a Jasper. She'd break you with a clean punch alone."

Tourmaline scratched her chin for a second. "Yeah. You're probably right…" Onyx crossed her arms, annoyance written all over her face. "Look, we can talk about all this later. For now, I want to see what this Jasper knows, if anything at all. Shall we handle that?" With that, Onyx turned back inside and made for the door to the temple. Garnet knelt down to Steven and Connie and said, "Alright you two, this is where things stop concerning you. We'll be a while, I think. Stay safe and keep close." With that, she stood up and followed Onyx, letting her back into the burning room. Beryl and Spinel followed suit.

"Hey, you two, you coming?" Spinel gestured toward Kyanite and Kunzite. Kunzite gripped Kyanite's arm and answered, "Nah, I think I'll just get acquainted with the area!" Kyanite's hard features softened as she looked down at Kunzite. "I've got a lot to see, I think." Spinel shrugged and then pointed at Tourmaline. "What about you? You coming?" Tourmaline stretched her arms and giggled, "No no, I'm gonna stick with these guys! We came here to get away from all the orders and stress, and I plan on keeping it that way." She turned to Amethyst, Steven, and Connie and said, "What's fun to do around here anyway?" Spinel coughed. "I hope you realize there's a couple more things we can do before we can relax. And I'm not just talking about those Homeworld gems that we've gotta deal with. We've gotta move the ship later."

Tourmaline slumped her shoulders, barely noticeably, and sighed. Steven looked out the door and scratched the back of his head. "Well, the sun's probably gonna go down sometime soon, so let's take what time we have left to show you around the town!" Connie and Amethyst started to smile again as well now that the low hanging somber fog had left the room. "There's still plenty of time and places to go to have fun!" Steven grabbed Connie and Tourmaline's hands and, while giggling like a child at recess, bounded out the door.

Amethyst followed, but paused at the door. She turned to look at Kyanite and Kunzite, "You guys uh… wanna come, too?" Kyanite broke her partner's stare and answered, "I think we'll carve our own path." "That, and Tourmaline can be a tad too excitable for me." Amethyst shrugged and ran out the door, herself, shouting, "Hey! Steve-o, wait up!"

Meanwhile, inside of the burning room, Garnet held the small, red bubble that contained Jasper's gem. "Alright, here she is." Beryl stepped forward and poked the bubble, popping it. The others gave a start as the gem fell to the floor. "What are you doing!?" Onyx shouted. Spinel summoned his polearm from his gem and stood at the ready. Garnet stepped back, with Pearl right behind her, preparing for the worst as well. Beryl merely stood over the gem. Slowly, it began to glow. The light took on the form of a muscular woman, and warped through a number of bodies until ending on the familiar form that Jasper took on.

She dropped to the floor with a thud, down on one knee, and clutching her head. Jasper looked over the room in disdain, before standing before the gem that stood in front of her. She scowled as she looked down upon Beryl. The intimidating gesture was seemingly shrugged off as Beryl casually began to speak, "Quick regeneration. Faster than any Quartz I've seen. Befitting your status as a warrior gem. Impressive, truly." Jasper sneered, "So, you're going to have me regenerate before you smash me. Well, you'll be hard pressed to take me dow-" Beryl chuckled and brought a hand to her mouth.

"Jasper, please, we wouldn't want you destroyed. Even if you don't answer our questions, we still will at the very least only hold you as prisoner. So long as you play nice, we won't even need to harm your physical form! What say you?" Jasper growled a low, loud, and animalistic sound, rife with anger. "I DON'T HAVE ANY REASON TO TELL YOU ANYTHING!" Beryl stopped smiling. "No." She said, simply. "No, I suppose you don't. Well, far be it from me to force anything out of you. I'll simply construct a prison in which you will reside until you decide to be cooperative." Jasper raised her fist and made to swing down. "I WON'T SIT QUIETLY HE-"

A black blade suddenly formed under Jasper's neck. The edge, wicked and sheer, pressed delicately against the formidable gem's throat. She winced, but didn't dare to move. "I didn't wish for that to happen, but you forced her hand, not me. I've been nothing but civil. Either way, this at least gets out of the way what you can come to expect to happen should you choose to escape."

The blade pulled away and Jasper lowered her arms. She looked back to see Onyx glaring at her with dark contempt. Despite being a head or so shorter than her, she felt as though the lithe gem was staring down at her. She then noticed just how many other gems there were in the room, each with their own weapons drawn. It was a motley crew, but she would be easily outmatched against their numbers and without a destabilizer to tip the scales.

"Now, would you answer at least one of my questions, dear Jasper?" Beryl spoke up again. Jasper looked around, taking in her surroundings, sweat beading on her brow. She'd taken a moment to notice just how many bubbled gems there were floating suspended in the air and the small circle of magma lying dead center in the room. She finally rested her gaze on Beryl once more. For the second time since landing on Earth, Jasper felt an unfamiliar feeling. Beryl waited patiently for her response, her face blank of any emotion and her hair guarding her eyes, and yet still Jasper felt a terrifying presence about her position.

"I… I will." She muttered. Beryl's smile returned as multicolored liquid metal bled from an unseen place behind her bangs. It was a terrifying sight for those present in the room, most of all Jasper. She shut her eyes, not wanting to witness this horrific display. Jasper finally identified the feeling: fear. Fear that this was where she would shatter. Fear that she had failed Yellow Diamond. Fear that she would be left on the planet when the Cluster emerges. Fear that- "What is your favorite color?" Beryl finally said. "Wh-wha-" Jasper opened her eyes in utter disbelief as she saw multiple colored metallic orbs floating in front of her. Behind her, Onyx slapped her forehead.

"WOO HOO-HOO!" Tourmaline shouted as wind whipped past her hair. Steven and Connie shouted happily in a teacup adjacent to Tourmaline and Amethyst's. Amethyst stared in disbelief. "Do you really find this fun?" Tourmaline was elated. She looked back to Amethyst and shouted, "Of COURSE I do! Do you know what this is like? To be free!? This is great! YAHOO!"

Steven and Connie wobbled uneasily out of their cup after it slowed to a stop, followed quickly but a bouncy Tourmaline and an awkward Amethyst. "What's next!?" Connie giggled and looked at Steven as well. He laughed and looked at the sky. Connie followed suit, but looked worried. "Oh, Steven I should be getting home soon. Do you think your dad could drive me home? I actually had violin practice soon." Steven looked concerned as well, understanding how her mother could get. "Yeah, let's go find dad. Hey, Amethyst, you and Tourmaline have fun without us for a bit. I'll be back later!"

With that, Steven ran off with Connie to Greg's car wash. Tourmaline looked at Amethyst with a funny look. "What's that all about?" Amethyst shrugged. "She's gotta head home. Was there anything else you wanted to do? We still have plenty of rides to try here." Tourmaline scratched her head and sighed, "Nah. When you can fly, these things sort of lose their magic. Besides, I'd kind of just like to look around. My Homeworld has nothing like this place. It's so strange and wild. Everything is out of place wherever I look and everyone looks to different! Nothing is ever the same! It's so exciting! I mean look at THAT!"

Tourmaline pointed at a lithe creature that looked barely human, with long arms and legs that ended with claws. It's body was also colored in deep shades of purple, blue, and green. It walked with an odd gait, almost like every step it took hurt. Amethyst glared at it for a second, trying to discern just what it was. "I've never even knew that creatures here could take on forms like those!" Amethyst grunted, "They can't." Suddenly the creature reared back and let out a deafening roar.

"That's not an Earth thing, T! That's one of the gem monsters!" Amethyst pulled out her whip and charged toward the beast. The creature turned around as Amethyst got closer, revealing a giant maw in place of its chest and a large monochromatic eye resting center in its head. The chest cavity had spikes sticking out of it similar to that of a rib cage that guarded seven pieces of gemstones crushed together. Amethyst paused in shock at the disfigured shape of its body. A pause that the monster capitalized on. It screeched and bounded toward Amethyst, claws at the ready. Amethyst flinched, but nothing followed. When she opened her eyes, she saw the creature's talons mere inches away from her gem, but she also saw a thin beam of light protruding from its eye.

"Huh. That's pretty messed up. A buncha gems smooshed all together. I feel kind of sick just looking at it." Tourmaline walked toward the beast, the beam of light coming from her outstretched palm. She looked down at Amethyst and said, "What is this thing? I didn't think there were any other gems here save for you guys and those three Homeworlders." Amethyst scowled and said, "These things are barely gems… They're monsters that never deserved this!" Tourmaline took a step back, clearly regretting what she'd said. She placed a hand over her mouth and knelt down to the fallen gem. "Well… perhaps there is something we can do for it? ...For them?"

Amethyst picked up the gem and bubbled it, shrugged, and turned to walk back to the beach. "Now that was pretty cool! I've never seen that one before!" Jenny pizza ran up to meet with Amethyst and Tourmaline, followed closely by Sour Cream and Buck Dewey. "Yeah, that was pretty cool." Said buck, giving a cool thumbs up. "Although, now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing you before, either. You new here?" Tourmaline giggled. "I suppose I am! I've been here before, though not in your time. It's good to be finally see what's become of this world!" Amethyst looked called back, "Hey, T, you comin'!?" Tourmaline jumped and looked to Amethyst, who was already halfway down the beach.

"Ah, Yeah! I'll be there in a second!" She looked to the Cool Kids once more and said, "Since I'm new here, would you guys mind showing me what's fun to do here later?" Jenny and Buck exchanged a glance and smiled, "You've got yourself a deal! You bring those light shows with you and we'll show you a good time!" Tourmaline giggled again. "Alright! You've got yourselves a deal!" Her body began to shimmer and her colors saturated until they seemed to leak into the very air. The Cool Kids watched in awe as her body began to emanate pure light and color until she burst forth into the air and flew across the sandy beach.

"Hey, Buck. Looks like SC has a new crush!" Jenny laughed out loud as she gestured toward their tall friend. Sour Cream's mouth hung open as he stared on towards the beach after Tourmaline. He hadn't seemed to notice his friends walking away, cracking jokes, and laughing to themselves. After a few seconds passed, He finally spoke, simply, and clearly, "Whoa…"


	10. Reorganize (Chapter 9 and a half)

**What is up guys, Sykkuno here! I have a generally short chapter here that I need your help with. I can't really decide which part of the story I want to do first, so instead I'll leave the decision making up to you and my friends. I hope you enjoy this rather short chapter, even though its not really that long. I hope it'll lead to bigger things!**

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"She said her favorite color was orange. I made the prison orange. I don't see the pro-" Onyx slammed her foot down, hard. "THE PROBLEM IS THAT NOW SHE'S NOT SCARED OF US ANYMORE! YOU SCREWED UP THE ONE THING WE HAD OVER HER! SHE KNOWS WE WON'T BREAK HER AND SHE KNOWS YOU'RE SOFT!" Beryl pursed her lips and tilted her head. "I'm soft?" She mused aloud to herself.

Onyx stormed back into the burning room where Garnet, Spinel, and Pearl were "interrogating" Jasper. Though she could not make out their most recent question, she assumed they were having about as much luck as ever.

Jasper shrugged and stared at the infinitely rising ceiling as she laid down, her eyes tracing over the dormant gems lying in their respective bubbles. Garnet and Spinel were keeping themselves relatively calm while Pearl was near her limit. She had her spear out and looked as though she were ready to crack Jasper's gem then and there.

"No luck?" Onyx spoke. Spinel looked back and shook his head. "Nah. She's still stubborn as ever." Onyx growled and stepped closer to the orange cage. "Talk, damn you!" She slammed her fists against the bars. Jasper didn't even so much as blink at the loud bang as it resounded around her. She kept staring into the ceiling. "Do you know what I've been through?"

Onyx's eyes narrowed into a pointed glare. Jasper turned her head nonchalantly to look Onyx in the eyes. "Not even in general, but recently. Do you know what I've had to deal with? You don't scare me. You're just a glorified Pearl who can fight. A mass produced mini soldier. Nothing more, nothing less. You aren't even a gem in your own right. I mean, you're more than that Pearl behind you, but you still belong to someone at the end of the day. Who do you belong to? Don't you have someone to take orders from?"

Onyx stepped back, her gaze now blank of all emotions. Spinel, Pearl, and Garnet now looked to her, afraid to assume what was going on in her head. Then she laughed. Onyx laughed so hard that her knees almost began to buckle. Even Jasper was confused, now. Pearl looked to Spinel, who looked back in utter disbelief. In his experience, he's seen her crack gems for much less.

Onyx looked down at Jasper again and spoke, "I get it. You're trying to get a rise out of me. Thing is, you almost had me, too." Her smile thinned.

"But I'm not an idiot, Jasper. You're a prisoner and you hold valuable information, so the way you see it is that if you get a rise out of the most ill-tempered person in the room you'll get them to break you and take your secrets with your death."

She knelt down to get closer to Jasper. "The other thing is, we have all the time in the world and everything to lose. Had we nothing to lose at all, you'd already be gone by now. Until then, I'm just going to follow my directions and keep you alive in this little box."

She looked up at the bubbled gems in thought. Silence filled the room once more, save for the bubbling magma at the center of the space. "You know, I heard that that Lapis Lazuli imprisoned you in that fusion under the sea." She tapped the bars of the cage and glanced back down, smiling all the while. "You should be used to this by now then, yeah?"

She got up and made to turn and leave, but before she opened the doorway she looked back. "Oh, and while I may have to follow my orders, don't think you live any different from how the Pearl or I do, dear Jasper. The only real difference between you and us is that we didn't fail our superiors."

With that, Onyx stepped back into the beach house. Beryl was staring out of the mesh window at the sea. She could barely make out Beryl muttering something to herself. "..apis La..li. It...en….time….nce…." "You knew her?" Beryl jumped and turned. "Onyx." She smiled and looked back out the window.

"I think so. I knew a Lapis Lazuli. It was… long ago. When Earth was being warred over. I took part in it, you know?" She chuckled at Onyx's face. She shook her head in disbelief. "It's true, I swear it. Though, I admit, I was a different gem back then." Her smiled faded and she brought a finger to her chin in thought. "Not nearly as mellow, too."

"Who's side were you on?" Onyx turned to looked out the window as well. Beryl remained silent for a minute, then spoke up. "How do you like this planet, Onyx? Does it seem alright to you? I think it's truly beautiful, myself." Onyx looked down at her. "I understand." Beryl smiled.

"They won't need your help talking to her. She'll never talk. We'll just keep her here until this is all over. It's almost sad. I had hoped she'd be able to see." Onyx shrugged. "Not everyone can be as visionary as you, Beryl. Some people never change. Some things never change." Beryl laughed. "Blunt as always. Help me move the ship to that island, Onyx. I cannot do it all alone."

Onyx sneered. "Yes you can." The shorter gem pouted and crossed her arms. "Well I can, but I don't want to."

"I heard you guys got some new gems to worry about, Kiddo. Is everything alright over there?" Steven scratched his head. "Well, Kyanite knows them so they can't be all bad." Greg frowned. "Ya know, I'm proud of you, Steven. You and Connie are handling all this crazy gem stuff a lot better than I did when I was younger."

Steven smiled and looked out his window to wave at Connie one last time before she went inside of her house. Greg pulled out of the driveway and began the lengthy trip back to Beach City. The drive was long and quiet for a long time, as neither knew what to say to the other.

The silence nearly persisted to their destination until Steven spoke up. "I'm scared, dad." Greg looked down for a second before putting his eyes back on the road. "Scared of what, Steve-o?" He was already pretty sure he knew what was wrong. With all of the excitement lately, it was only a matter of time before things started to weigh on Steven's mind.

"I'm scared that we're not ready. I mean, I know we're not, but things are happening too fast. Peridot is still running around, we have Jasper locked up in the temple, Lapis is somewhere out there, and we have no idea whether or not this Yellow Diamond knows we're here."

Steven stared at his feet as they hung off of the seat. Greg cleared his throat and laughed that awkward he does whenever he doesn't know what to say next, then tried to follow it up with, "W-well, I'll tell ya what, Steve-o. Let's have a night where we just relax! No gem stuff, no crazy antics, nothing super exciting! Just us two guys and a couple of movies to get our minds off of all this stuff."

He looked down at his son as he pulled into the car wash. "Whatya say, Stuball? Just us." Steven looked up at Greg and smiled.

"Just us." Morganite looked at her hands, all locked together in a tight embrace. "Back together. It has been so long since we became me! I've missed it for all these years. I have so much to catch up on! LIke where are we, for starters?"

She stood up and twirled around on her toes, letting her arms fly out. "I know that this place is called Earth, but what secret beauties does it hide?" She began to giggle. "I have all the time in the world, now!"

"I don't have to be tied down anymore! Nothing to tie me down and I don't need to take Onyx's orders anymore, either! I'm free!" Tourmaline stretched her arms toward the sky and basked in the sunlight. "Nngah! Wonder what people do for fun on this planet."

Tourmaline began her exploration of Beach City on the boardwalk, placing herself at one of the railings overlooking the sea and taking in the view. "Maybe I can get used to just doing nothing for once." A minute of passed before Tourmaline stood back up. "Nah, I can't do this. There's gotta be something to do around here."

"There's nothing to do about her for now." Garnet pushed up her shades and stepped towards the door. Pearl and Spinel looked at her in exasperation and then looked back at Jasper. She made no move that betrayed any effect from their interrogation. "We'll return soon." Said Spinel.

They followed Garnet out into the beach house and were met with Amethyst sprawled out on the couch. Her head upside down, she looked at them and waved. "Any luck?" Garnet shook her head and sat down next to her. "No. She's a proud warrior gem." Spinel laughed. "A quartz at that. The only way she'll ever break is if we shatter her gem."

Pearl scoffed and looked toward the door, almost glaring through it at their prisoner. "Then what's keeping us?" They all, in turn, followed her gaze toward the door, sharing a mixed expression of worry and impatience.

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**Well, now that you've finished, I can present the choices.**

**Requiescence ****\- Morganite (Kyanite &amp; Kunzite's chapter)**

**Road Trip - Onyx &amp; Beryl's chapter**

**(W)rest - Greg &amp; Steven's chapter**

**Round One - Garnet, Spinel, Amethyst, Pearl (And probably Jasper's) chapter**

**Realism - Tourmaline's chapter**

**I will also be putting out a quick chapter on Connie, too, so you can opt in for that one as well. It'll be a rather short Cut-away about her violin practice called: "Connie Maheswaran, Gem Fighter Extraordinaire." Actually, I think these all might be varying in the size department. We'll see. Either way, I can't really decide these on my own so I'll be running them by my friends as well. I think the hardest part about these chapters is finding words that start with R to continue this stupid motif. I need to stop this soon, but I've invested too many chapters into it.**


	11. Connie Maheswaran (Cut-off chapter)

**The Connie thing that was CONSTANTLY running through my mind. Like, ALL DAY. I'm surprised I got it done today. I guess I've just been excited that summer's started. With my job picking up and Dungeons and Dragons on the weekends I'm not sure how much time I'll have for writing, but I'll probably set up certain times for me to write. That way I can get more stuff written and more stuff out. I hope you like the chapter, because this is going to allow me to focus on bigger stuff. I just thought this would be a cute little piece for the time being. Enjoy!**

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Connie stepped into her house and, much to her dread, was greeted by the sounds of a violin. She saw her teacher seated at the other end of the living room already well into a song. It was a somber, familiar piece that she'd heard before any number of times. She knew that the soft melancholy at the start would lift up into a beautiful exaltation toward the end. Even so, she could not help but feel as though she were forgetting something.

A few minutes of patient waiting and listening and Connie quietly prepping her own violin passed quickly. The lift came, as she expected, and soon dipped down into a cool and calming finish. The soothing tones washed over her, leaving her relaxed after the confusion of the day. She was always left amazed that a simple piece of wood coupled with strings could make such beautiful sounds.

With the song done, her teacher placed her violin on the arm of her chair. Connie clapped quietly for her teacher in response. "Connie." She began. Connie gulped. She knew this tone of voice. She had done something wrong. "Why didn't you join me?" She brought her hand to her mouth and rested her head against it as she waited an answer. Connie had recognized the song, of course, but she had no clue as to why her teacher wanted her to join. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Schwartz?"

Mrs. Schwartz looked exasperated for a brief moment, then regained her composure. "Surely you haven't forgotten the duet that we've been practicing for the past month?" Connie's eyes widened. She had done just that. "**But how?**" She couldn't fathom it! She had been playing Steven the song, or rather what she knew of it, whenever she could. He even joined in with his ukulele when he could. Though, the more she looked back at those private concerts, there was often times more giggling than actual playing. That coupled with the excitement of the day had left her mind far too addled to focus on music.

She sighed. "I'm sorry Mrs. Schwartz. I've been practicing as much as I can, but there's just been so many crazy things happening today!" She swung her hands in the air, almost to exemplify how crazy the day had been. Mrs. Schwartz chuckled and leaned forward. "Let me guess. Steven, again?" Connie blushed and looked at the floor. "W-well, some crazy things have happened, like I said! It hasn't all been Steven! I didn't even get to my sword fighting practice!"

Her interest peaked, Mrs. Schwartz decided to postpone her own violin lessons. "Oh? Sounds like quite a lot of fun! Care to indulge an old lady, Ms. Maheswaran?" Connie nervously rubbed her shoulder, went to look out the window, and then returned to her seat. Mrs. Schwartz watched bemusedly as Connie went about her ministrations. She took on a serious face that Mrs. Schwartz had never seen before and asked, "Can I trust you to keep a secret?" She signed an X over her heart with her index finger and Connie's face lit up.

For an hour and a half Connie raved on and on, telling stories that Steven had told her about the gems and their escapades. Eventually, she made it to the parts where she began to take part. She told Mrs. Schwartz about how she followed Steven to help with Lapis Lazuli's escape, about how she first began training with Pearl, and about her first real encounters with the gem monsters. There was more energy in her when telling these stories than she'd ever seen in her in their years of being teacher and student. It was refreshing to know that she was growing into a very strong girl, but terrifying to hear about these seemingly fantastical events.

By the time Connie told Mrs. Schwartz about the battle between Morganite and Malachite the door opened and Mrs. Maheswaran was already stepping into the living room. It was late, almost eight at night. Connie hadn't noticed in her enthusiasm. She held her arm, about to tell her teacher about how she and Steven fused to stop Kyanite from shattering Jasper when the door opened. "Mom!" She shouted, putting her arms behind her back and cutting her story off entirely. Mrs. Maheswaran hadn't noticed that they were talking and smiled. "Connie. I assume practice went well? I've never seen you smile so widely."

Connie blushed and stuttered out, "W-well, we we-were learning-" Mrs. Schwartz stood up and picked up her Violin. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Maheswaran. We were so caught up with choosing a new song to practice that time got away from us. She took such an interest to it that I decided it would have just been for the best to let her imagination wander. I should have been keeping more track of time." She winked at Connie who, in turn, smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I-i had so many ideas for songs that we could try, but we haven't even finished the duet we were practicing. I'm sorry."

Mrs. Maheswaran laughed and said, "Well, so long as you don't lose track of your first goal a little enthusiasm is fine. I'll be heading to my room for a moment. Thank you again for coming, Mrs. Schwartz." With that, she left the room. Mrs. Schwartz made for the door but paused. "Connie. It sounds to me like you've got a lot of work ahead of you. This duet that you've been practicing with Steven seems to be a very important one. I just hope that you won't forget the music while you're out there making your own songs and stories for yourself!"

Connie laughed. "Please, Mrs. Schwartz, I can handle myself! My songs have yet to be written, but they'll make ballads of me!" Mrs. Schwartz laughed. "I can see them now! Connie Maheswaran, the Gem Fighter Extraordinaire!" They shared a laugh before she left and closed the door behind her. Connie looked out into the center of the room, then towards the sword that rested by the lamp. "Connie Maheswaran, the Gem Fighter Extraordinaire…" She echoed.


End file.
